Mobbing: violence at work or semantic abuse – the evaluation of the phenomenon by professionally active nurses

Aim of the study
To assess the frequency of occurrence of mobbing in the work environment of professionally active nurses.

Material and methods
In order to collect data, the diagnostic survey method was deployed. The research instruments were a questionnaire designed by the au-thor of this paper and a standardised questionnaire: Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ). Data for the study were collected from a sample of 150 professional nurses. Most of the respondents worked as a staff nurse.

Results
The assessed work environments were generally favourable in the group of respondents. On the other hand, the approaches to employees were perceived as mostly negative. The majority of the nurses participating in the research reported facing mobbing behaviour in the workplace. The majority of manifestations of mobbing that were experienced by the subjects in the last six months were creating rumours about the subjects, ignoring their views and opinions, and excessive control of their work.

Conclusions
It is advisable to introduce wide research on mobbing based on a standardised survey method. It can help in a wider analysis and com-parison of the mobbing aspects at workplaces. The results obtained could be used to develop recovery programs in health care.