Students’ Perspectives of Bullying Behaviors Experienced in Nursing Education: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

The passing of Anti-Bullying Act 10627 in Philippines triggers implementation in different schools and workplaces in the country. This is a call to intensify for the bully-free environment among affected sectors especially in academe. This study described types, sources, and frequency of bullying behaviors encountered by nursing students in their second, third and fourth year of nursing education. The descriptive cross-sectional design is utilized to assess bullying behaviors from nursing students’ perspective. Four- hundred eighty-one (481) respondents experienced at least one or more bullying behaviors from different sources. It also indicated that classmates as the most frequent source of eight out of 12 bullying behaviors, followed by faculty/clinical instructor. However, majority claimed that nothing had been done to bullying behaviors they experienced ( f - 156, 15.23%), they pretended not see behavior ( f - 155, 15.14%), perceived behavior as a joke ( f - 153, 14.94%) and put up barriers ( f -143, 13.96%), respectively. The evidence is clear; bullying poisons academic setting, and it can be carried over to practice. Thus, serious attention and management for nursing schools have to strengthen policies/guidelines to bullying prevention. Caring, safe, bullying free environment and collaborative efforts of zero tolerance to bullying has to be established for student nurses in academe. Keywords - Social Science, bullying behaviors, nursing students, cross- sectional, descriptive design, Philippines, Asia