The Way We Treat Each Other Should Be Just as Important as the Care We Provide: Bullying and Incivility in Healthcare

Aug 25, 2026

25:45

Episode Description

Bullying and incivility in healthcare are getting worse, not better. In this episode of the Love n' Leary Nursing Podcast, hosts Marion Leary, PhD, MPH, RN, and Rebecca Love, RN, MSN, FIEL, talk with Renee Thompson, DNP, RN, FAONL, FAAN, CSP, CEO and founder of the Healthy Workforce Institute, about why toxic behavior persists in nursing and what actually stops it.

Renee shares the research behind the problem, including data linking incivility to psychological safety and a $2 billion-a-day price tag for workplaces. She explains why "nurses eat their young" now cuts both ways across generations, why leaders default to silence, and why one-off workshops never fix a culture. Then she lays out the strategies that work: equipping leaders, setting behavioral expectations as a team, making healthy workforce a standing agenda item, and building real feedback skills.

She also shares the message behind the second edition of her best-selling book, Enough! Eradicate Bullying & Incivility in Healthcare, and the one thing every witness to bullying can do today.

Article: https://nurse.org/news/nurse-bullying-incivility-renee-thompson

Connect with Renee:

Skip Ahead:

0:59: Marion welcomes Renee Thompson, CEO and founder of the Healthy Workforce Institute
1:42: Renee's 30+ year nursing career and why she left a job she loved to fight bullying
3:52: The data: psychological safety, the AONL Joslin Insight study, and incivility's $2 billion-a-day cost (SHRM)
6:20: Is it getting worse or are we just better at reporting it? (Both.)
7:24: Why the pandemic's "healthcare heroes" moment didn't last
8:49: Nurses eating their young — and now their old
10:33: Marion asks: is it incivility, or a more confident generation? Scripts for both sides
13:53: Rebecca on why these conversations stay at the water cooler — and why culture change beats one-off workshops
15:53: What actually works: equipping leaders, ending silence as a strategy, the HR disconnect, team compacts, and the #1 tip — healthy workforce as a standing agenda item
21:18: Enough! Eradicate Bullying & Incivility in Healthcare, second edition
23:52: Parting wisdom: the three parties in every incident — and why the witness is the most powerful

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