Association between Workplace Bullying, Job Stress, and Professional Quality of Life in Nurses: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Workplace bullying affects workers' lives, causing several mental and physical health problems and job-related issues. Therefore, a summary of the evidence on the consequences of workplace bullying on workers' lives is essential to improve working conditions. The literature lacks systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the association between workplace bullying and job stress and the professional quality of life of nurses. Thus, we aimed to quantitatively summarize the data on the association between workplace bullying, job stress, and professional quality of life. We performed our study in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42024495948). We searched PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Cinahl, and Web of Science up to 4 January 2024. We calculated pooled correlation coefficients and 95% confidence intervals [CI]. We identified nine studies with a total of 3730 nurses. We found a moderate positive correlation between workplace bullying and job stress (pooled correlation coefficient = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.29 to 0.39). Moreover, a small negative correlation between workplace bullying and compassion satisfaction (pooled correlation coefficient = -0.28, 95% CI = -0.41 to -0.15) was identified. Additionally, our findings suggested a moderate positive correlation between workplace bullying and job burnout (pooled correlation coefficient = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.32 to 0.53) and secondary traumatic stress (pooled correlation coefficient = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.11 to 0.57). Our findings can help nursing managers and policy-makers to draw attention to workplace bullying by implementing effective interventions, so as to reduce the bullying of nurses.

Keywords: job stress; meta-analysis; nurses; professional quality of life; workplace bullying.

Figure 1

Flowchart of the systematic review.

Figure 2

Forest plot for the correlation coefficient between workplace bullying and job stress [52,54,58].

Figure 3

Forest plot for the correlation coefficient between workplace bullying and compassion satisfaction [32,54,56,57].

Figure 4

Forest plot for the correlation coefficient between workplace bullying and job burnout [32,54,56,57].

Figure 5

Forest plot for the correlation coefficient between workplace bullying and secondary traumatic stress [32,54,56].