A nursing instructor quizzes a group of students on the primary reasons for nurse workplace anger. Which reason given by one of the students would require further clarification by the instructor?

Question

a. long hours
b. unreasonable workload
c. demeaning treatment by other health care workers
d. inadequate staffing

Answer 1

A
Anger is an emotion that nurses may experience in the workplace due to a number of different factors.
Some of the primary reasons for nurses' anger in the workplace are unreasonable workload,
demeaning treatment by other health care workers, inadequate staffing, mismanagement of patients,
lack of administrative support, feeling powerless to influence difficult situations, and feeling like
scapegoats for mistakes within the system. Long hours, while a considerable problem especially when
overtime becomes mandatory, can contribute to nurses' anger but is not one of the primary reasons and
can fall under the categories of inadequate staffing (hence the overtime) or feeling powerless within
the system.