Those Who Are Bullied Bully Right Back
Now we know why the oppressed eat their young and each other.
W
hat does a
primate do
when he
loses a fight?
Inevitably he walks
away and swats anoth-
er primate who's inno-
cently minding his
own business. Those
who are dominated
and oppressed will
look to overpower
someone else — where have you seen that happen?
Yep, be it in the jungle or in the OR (which many liken to a jungle),
those who are bullied will resort to aggression among themselves —
usually a peer or someone lower down the hierarchy of power whom
they perceive as having lesser status: a nursing student or a nursing
assistant will do.
Psychologists call this phenomenon "submissive aggressive syn-
drome." You know it as bullying, horizontal violence or nurse-to-nurse
hostility.
Some speculate that verbal abuse by physicians contributes signifi-
cantly to nurse-to-nurse hostility because nurses pass their anger and
frustration with physicians onto coworkers or subordinates. In one
study, researchers who observed physicians verbally abusing more
than 90% of nurses later witnessed 76% of those nurses exhibit nurse-
to-nurse hostility, reports Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN, in her
book, "Ending Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility."
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Editor's Page
Dan O'Connor
CYCLE OF OPPRESSION When overpowered, primates will walk away and overpow-
er an innocent bystander,
