When I started in the Honors Fellows for Social Change program, I had a completely different project in mind. I had volunteered locally in the emergency department at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego for several years and seen the abundance of children suffering from mental health issues. My original project looked to address the disparities in adolescent mental health. I sought to find a way to reduce the stigma around adolescent mental health issues within nursing. I also wanted to focus on ways to support and educate the child and family by providing a bridge to resources. During the Social Change program and also my advancing within nursing school I discovered a new topic, Incivility in Nursing.

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       As a nursing student and future nurse, I feel that incivility in nursing is not addressed sufficiently in nursing curriculum and even on the nursing floors. I completed the online modules and even read a few blurbs within textbooks that reference these behaviors, but it was never mentioned beyond that. In my clinical experiences, I have been fortunate to have many amazing preceptors, nurse mentors, and nurse educators but after speaking to my classmates and other students at my school, I realized my experiences differed greatly from theirs. I heard stories of nurses refusing to work with students or even nurses witnessed being bullied on the floor by more seasoned nurses. This made me sad. I have waited my entire life to enter the nursing profession and nurses work in such high-stress environments, we should support each other, we must support each other. I knew these stories were anecdotal, but I sought to learn more and see if the behaviors were actually within the nursing profession. I researched and discovered that the implications of incivility in nursing included medical errors, increased stress on the nurse, higher turnover rates, and even nurses leaving the profession altogether. The findings baffled me since I knew that I had worked so hard to earn my spot within the nursing program and fought even harder to stay in the program to hopefully one day become a nurse, so why would someone just walk away? I then decided to change the direction of my project and delved deeper into the research and looked at the reasons why this phenomenon occurs. I wanted to learn why these behaviors that have been researched for years continue to occur and show no signs of ending. I wanted to find out why nurses eat their young since after all I am considered one of the young. 

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       Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the move to online classes, I do not feel I was able to finish my original vision I had for this project but I feel I completed an educational resource that can be used to help provide knowledge about incivility and the behaviors to nursing students and nursing professionals. Throughout my project I engaged in numerous conversations and shared my research, I also plan to share my final project with my cohort and look forward to their feedback. By speaking to my peers about my project and findings it has increased their awareness of the subject matter. I often have classmates asking me for project updates or to see if I have learned anything new since our last conversation, I feel this shows that my project is indeed successful. Although I have had many anecdotal conversations with classmates and nursing peers, I would have loved to conduct formal face to face interviews with nurses or nursing students who experienced these behaviors to incorporate into my research but due to COVID-19 and time restraints, this proved to not be possible at this time.

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       Looking at the final project I would have loved to present my findings face to face. I am a very social person and thrive on face to face interactions. I feel presenting my project face to face in real-time would have helped showcase my passion for this topic plus drive home the importance of stopping these learned behaviors before they cross over to the workplace. I do not feel my project is a failure since I was not able to finish my original vision, I was able to remain flexible and, in the end, finish a project that I am proud of. I know the issue of incivility in nursing is an important topic that currently shows no signs of ending, I plan to continue to address the issue and research during my professional career and hopefully one day within my graduate studies.

Overall, I feel the biggest measurement of the success of this project was the increase in my knowledge and the positive impact it had on my educational journey. The project helped me look at my behaviors and taught me how to foster positive behaviors in the working environment. I have seen the importance of positive behaviors in the nursing profession and have become more aware of my behaviors and interactions. Juggling the workload of my project research and classes proved to be challenging at times but it helped me learn to master time management and also admit when I cannot do everything. In a way, it also taught me how to prioritize my educational development and this proved to increase my learning. Another major lesson I learned during the project is that it is okay to stop research and start over again with a new idea. I learned you cannot force research to fit within your project and even if you have invested time with said research it is okay to toss it and start over.

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       During the project, I have been fortunate to be employed as a Nurse Extern for a local hospital due to the patient surge from COVID-19, I have again witnessed firsthand the positive behaviors of nurses within the profession. I feel very fortunate to have been placed on a floor that embodies the positive behaviors that I have learned about during my research. I feel these behaviors are present due to the leadership on the unit and the positivity of all of the nurses and other staff members. My greatest hope is that all of my classmates get to have the same positive working experience in the future. Witnessing these behaviors in the working environment solidifies the importance of positive behaviors and increased support of all nurses and other healthcare professionals.