The community health nurse addresses cyber bullying in the local middle schools. Currently, there are no policies in place for this issue. The most appropriate first step is to:

Question

A) Explore current programs to prevent bullying and youth violence
B) Develop rules for acceptable and safe use of all electronic media for all students
C) Ban use of the Internet at all schools
D) Actively monitor students' social media postings

Answer 1

Ans: A
Feedback:
The most appropriate first step to take would be to explore current programs to prevent bullying and youth violence. Many of the programs developed to prevent face-to-face aggression address topics such as school climate and peer influences that are likely to be important for prevention of electronic aggression. By researching and perhaps adopting an existing program, the nurse will not have to develop a program from scratch. Developing rules for acceptable and safe use of all electronic media for all students is not likely to be effective because there would be no way to enforce them. This would be a more appropriate action for parents and caregivers. Banning all use of the Internet at all schools would be impractical, as the Internet is increasingly being incorporated into learning, and impossible to enforce. Actively monitoring students' social media postings would be impractical, as no one would have time for this, and cyber bullying can occur on many different sites and devices.