Abstract
Incivility is rampant in nursing. The most frequent targets are student nurses, newly graduated nurses, or nurses moving into a new area. Authors suggest faculty should role model civil behaviors for nursing students. Unfortunately, incivility also occurs in nursing education. Much has been written about faculty targeting students. Recently, incivility from students has been identified. In our graduate nursing program, faculty identified an increase in uncivil student behavior. We sought to determine if faculty and student perceptions of incivility were the same and if differing generations were a factor in the perception of uncivil behavior.
Students enrolled in online graduate nursing courses (N=2,400) and faculty teaching these courses (N=135) at a midwestern regional university were recruited. Participants completed the Incivility in the Online Learning Environment tool electronically.
A total of 110 participants fully completed the data collection, 93 students and 24 faculty. Most participants were working full-time (67.24%) and were members of the Generation Y cohort (50.86%).
One student behavior, challenging faculty knowledge was always considered uncivil by faculty, but most students felt it was usually uncivil. Students identified failing to fulfill group responsibilities as always uncivil while faculty reported it as usually uncivil. Faculty identified failing to complete assignments in a timely manner, taking credit for others’ work, challenging faculty knowledge, and failing to fulfill group responsibilities occurring sometimes/often during the last twelve months. Faculty behaviors of unclear syllabi/expectations and lack of timely response were viewed as uncivil by students.
Faculty (66.67%) and students (63.0%) reported incivility as a mild or moderate problem. Students identified students as a little more likely and faculty felt students were much more likely to engage in uncivil behavior. Both groups rated the level of civility within the online program as 81% to 100%.
Notes
Reference list included in attached slide deck.
Sigma Membership
Rho Theta, Zeta Phi at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
lncivility, Virtual Learning, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Nursing Education, Advances in Education, Student Incivility
Recommended Citation
O'Connell, Karen M., "Incivility in Graduate Nursing Online Environment" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 179.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/179
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-12-03
Incivility in Graduate Nursing Online Environment
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Incivility is rampant in nursing. The most frequent targets are student nurses, newly graduated nurses, or nurses moving into a new area. Authors suggest faculty should role model civil behaviors for nursing students. Unfortunately, incivility also occurs in nursing education. Much has been written about faculty targeting students. Recently, incivility from students has been identified. In our graduate nursing program, faculty identified an increase in uncivil student behavior. We sought to determine if faculty and student perceptions of incivility were the same and if differing generations were a factor in the perception of uncivil behavior.
Students enrolled in online graduate nursing courses (N=2,400) and faculty teaching these courses (N=135) at a midwestern regional university were recruited. Participants completed the Incivility in the Online Learning Environment tool electronically.
A total of 110 participants fully completed the data collection, 93 students and 24 faculty. Most participants were working full-time (67.24%) and were members of the Generation Y cohort (50.86%).
One student behavior, challenging faculty knowledge was always considered uncivil by faculty, but most students felt it was usually uncivil. Students identified failing to fulfill group responsibilities as always uncivil while faculty reported it as usually uncivil. Faculty identified failing to complete assignments in a timely manner, taking credit for others’ work, challenging faculty knowledge, and failing to fulfill group responsibilities occurring sometimes/often during the last twelve months. Faculty behaviors of unclear syllabi/expectations and lack of timely response were viewed as uncivil by students.
Faculty (66.67%) and students (63.0%) reported incivility as a mild or moderate problem. Students identified students as a little more likely and faculty felt students were much more likely to engage in uncivil behavior. Both groups rated the level of civility within the online program as 81% to 100%.
Description
Incivility is rampant in nursing. Faculty should role model civil behavior for students. We sought to determine if faculty and students agreed on what behaviors are uncivil. Most agreed on what uncivil behaviors. One significant difference is challenging faculty knowledge; faculty always felt it was uncivil while students felt it was usually uncivil. Additional study should be conducted to investigate this discrepancy.