The relationship among faculty-to-faculty incivility and job satisfaction or intent to leave in nursing programs in the United States.

BACKGROUND: There have been numerous studies examining student-faculty and faculty-student incivility in nursing programs (Atmiller, 2012; Clark et al., 2021; Clark & Springer, 2010; Eka & Chambers, 2019; Tourangeau et al., 2014). Research on faculty-to-faculty incivility in nursing programs has been lacking.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship among faculty-to-faculty incivility, job satisfaction and intent to leave. Furthermore, this study examined the barriers to addressing incivility, the contributing factors to workplace incivility and strategies to improve workplace incivility.

METHODS: The initial sampling method used was a randomized stratified cluster sampling method. Due to a poor response rate the sampling process was changed to convenience sampling. The researcher collected data using The Workplace Incivility/Civility Survey. Additional questions were added to collect demographic data, incidences of incivility in the workplace, the physical and emotional response to these incidences, job satisfaction and intent to leave.

RESULTS: Data analysis showed that 50 % of the participants believe faculty-to-faculty incivility is a moderate to severe problem in their workplace. Furthermore, there is a negative correlation between faculty-to-faculty incivility and job satisfaction or faculty retention. Additional findings showed that 38.6 % of the participants had minimal to no confidence in addressing workplace incivility. Fear of professional or personal retaliation was the greatest barrier to addressing workplace incivility.

CONCLUSION: The current nursing faculty shortage has created a barrier to addressing the nursing workforce shortage. Universities and nursing programs need to address the factors that lead to decreased job satisfaction and faculty attrition with incivility being one of the factors.