National Study on Faculty and Administrators' Perceptions of Civility and Incivility in Nursing Education

BACKGROUND: Incivility among nursing faculty and administrators lowers morale, damages relationships, and threatens workplace health and productivity. PURPOSE: This national study examined nursing faculty and administrators' perceptions of civility and incivility in nursing education, ways to address the problem, and psychometric properties of the Workplace Incivility/Civility Survey (WICS). METHODS: A convergent mixed-methodological study was used to conduct the study. A factor analysis and other reliability analyses were conducted on the WICS. RESULTS: Respondents included 1074 faculty and administrators who identified types and frequency of incivility, severity and contributors to the problem, reasons for avoiding incivility, and strategies to improve civility. Eight themes of uncivil behaviors were garnered. The WICS was shown to be a psychometrically sound instrument to measure civility and incivility. CONCLUSION: This study reported faculty and administrators' perceptions of civility and incivility in nursing education and provided evidence-based strategies to prevent and address the problem.