The frequency of mobbing in clinical nurses and its effects: A systematic review

Introduction: The phenomenon of mobbing in hospitals is an important inhibitor both for the psychospiritual balance of clinical nurses and for the proper functioning of hospitals as organizations. Aim: The investigation of the frequency of mobbing in clinical nurses and its impact on them. Methods: Search was performed on PubMed on March 13, 2020 with the key-words: “mobbing” and “nurse*”, without time limit for the publication of scientific papers. Studies were excluded if they were not published in English language, were conducted on animals and were case studies, editorials and letters to the editor. Results: Of the scientific papers retrieved, 14 were included in the systematic review. The prevalence of mobbing in clinical nurses ranged from 4.6% to 86.5%. This large variation is due to the characteristics of the health system of each country. Finally, the results of the studies showed that mobbing reduces the productivity of clinical nurses and the climate of cooperation and solidarity between them, increases anxiety, depression and stress levels, reduces the feeling of satisfaction and safety of the working environment and increases the number of absences from work. Conclusions: Mobbing is a common form of work-related violence experienced by clinical nurses. Hospital administrations are invited to acquire the knowledge to identify this phenomenon in the workplace in order to develop policies to prevent and address it. Mobbing is a common form of work-related violence experienced by clinical nurses. Hospital administrations are called to acquire the knowledge to identify this phenomenon in the workplace in order to develop policies to prevent and address it.

Keywords: Mobbing, nurses, effects