Anti Harassment, Bullying & Incivility Statement

Harassment, Bullying and Incivility in healthcare are critical issues that impact the health,well-being, and professional development of healthcare professionals. It is essential toaddress such behavior to maintain a safe and supportive environment. As nurses,midwives and nursing associates, bound by our conditions of employment and code ofconduct, we have a responsibility to foster a culture of respect, inclusivity, diversity andcollaboration in keeping with our core values of being committed to the advancement,promotion and sustainability of the nursing and midwifery profession.

Harassment can be defined as 'any unwanted action, behaviour, comment, physicalcontact or passive intimidation that a person finds objectionable or offensive andwhich makes that individual feel threatened, humiliated, patronised oruncomfortable, leading to a loss of dignity or respect'. Harassment may be persistentor an isolated incident and can create an intimidating or hostile work environment.Harassment may be directed towards people because of their gender, age, sexualorientations, race, colour, ethnic origin, religious beliefs or mental disability or someother characteristic.

Bullying (as defined by the Bermuda Employment Act 2000) is the habitual display of offensive behaviour intended to harm, intimidate, humiliate, undermine or coerce a person or group of employees and includes, but is not limited to, ostracizing, ridiculing, shouting at, threatening, and verbally abusing a person or group employees. In the modern work environment, bullying can extend to the cyber environment via emails or social media.

Incivility is antisocial workplace behaviour, which is perceived as rude, discourteous, impolite, alienating or possibly violating the norms of good behaviour. Behaviour can be subtle with ambiguous intent or can be more overt.