Bullying among nurses and its relationship with burnout and organizational climate

Workplace bullying is one of the most common work-related psychological problems. Bullying costs seem higher for organizations composed of health-care workers who perform direct-contact patients-complex tasks. Only a few studies have been carried out among nurses in Italy and integrated models of bullying antecedents and consequences are particularly missing. The aim of this study was to develop a bullying model focused on the interaction between bullying and burnout in the setting of a climate-health relationship. Research involved 658 nurses who completed a survey on health, burnout, bullying and organizational climate. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis. Results suggest that workplace bullying partially mediates the relationship between organizational climate and burnout and that bullying does not affect health directly, but only indirectly, via the mediation of burnout. Our study demonstrates the key-role of workplace bullying and burnout in the climate-health relationship in order to understand and to improve nurses' health.