Addressing nursing incivility: A faculty development initiative

Abstract:

Background/objective: Nursing incivility is a widespread issue experienced by more than 85% of nurses in the U.S. Approximately 30%-71% of nursing faculty consider incivility a moderate to severe problem. Incivility is commonly known as “horizontal violence” or “bullying” and can include behaviors such as minor annoyances, distractions, or acts of violence. Incivility has negative effects on faculty well-being, including physical/emotional distress, reduced job satisfaction, and increased turnover. This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to explore faculty perspectives on incivility and evaluate the effects of a multifaceted educational intervention in reducing nursing faculty-perceived frequency of student incivility behaviors. 
Methods: A descriptive, pre–post design was used to assess changes in faculty-reported incivility using the Incivility in Nursing Education-Revised (INE-R) survey. Multifaceted interventions, incorporating multiple strategies such as increasing awareness, cognitive rehearsal, and reflective learning, were integrated into the educational intervention. The intervention was completed with nursing faculty, and the INE-R survey was utilized to measure faculty perceptions of the severity/frequency of student incivility behaviors before and after the intervention. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected and evaluated using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and other descriptive statistics. 
Results: The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test comparing the median of the differences between pre- and post-composite scores revealed a statistically significant reduction in frequency (Z = -2.10, p = .03). The mean INE-R frequency scores decreased from 2.3 (SD = 2.3) pre-intervention to 1.9 (SD = 1.9) post-intervention, reflecting a 17.4% reduction in the perceived frequency of student incivility.
Conclusions: Nursing programs should sustain civility initiatives through ongoing multifaceted educational interventions integrated into faculty development and institutional policies. Expanding these interventions across programs and institutions can strengthen the culture of civility and promote positive change in nursing education.

• Keywords:
• Faculty development; Incivility in nursing education; Nursing academia; Nursing incivility

• Received:
• January 04, 2026
• Accepted:
• January 28, 2026
• Published:
• February 24, 2026

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