Systemic Bullying Present at Broken Hill Hospital claims by Nurses

by Oct 2, 2015

In this blog post, nurses who were once silent now bravely step into the light, revealing a distressing pattern of harassment and mistreatment within the hospital’s management.

The Alarming Situation

Claims of systemic bullying were raised by healthcare workers against members of the management team of Broken Hill Base Hospital in Australia. The nurses alleged that they were harassed and bullied at work which resulted in as many as 50 workers leaving the hospital in a span of two years. The main reason was the toxic work culture and bullying at play in the hospital.

Some of the former hospital nurses have reportedly raised this concern to the NSW Ministry of Health and the Far West Local Health District, which oversees healthcare in Broken Hill.  A few of the veteran nurses claimed that they experienced workplace bullying and were pushed out of the hospital in an alleged campaign to weed out older staff.  A former nurse also confessed to being humiliated at work given instances of being yelled at in front of patients and other co-workers.

Unfortunately, not a lot of the affected nurses were willing to speak out when an investigation was launched. They feared that it may cost them their job if they recounted the instances that they became bullying victims. This is quite disheartening to know that these hard working nurses are working in a negative and toxic environment.

To learn more about the case, click here to read the full article on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Do you know how much money chronically bad behavior costs your company? Spoiler alert – it’s a LOT higher than you want it to be. Download our data and worksheet to see how it’s costing your organization and what you can do to fix it.

 

Catherine

About Catherine Mattice

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the founder/CEO of Civility Partners, an organizational development firm focused on helping organizations create respectful workplace cultures and specializing in turning around toxic cultures. Civility Partners’ clients range from Fortune 500s to small businesses across many industries. Catherine is a TEDx speaker and an HR thought leader who has appeared in such venues as USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, and many other national news outlets as an expert. She’s an award-winning speaker, author, and blogger and has 60+ courses reaching global audiences on LinkedIn Learning.  Her fourth book, Navigating Toxic Work Environments For Dummies (Wiley), is available in all major bookstores and where audiobooks are sold.

Should HR Come as a Pair? Compliance vs. Strategic HR

Have you ever noticed how small most HR teams are in comparison to everything they’re expected to do? In many organizations, HR makes up only about 2% of the workforce. Yet they’re responsible for the business’ most valuable asset - PEOPLE. That means culture and...

AI Prompts for Busy HR and Leaders Building Civil Cultures

You don’t struggle creating and managing a positive culture because you don’t care about it. You struggle because you don’t have the time. Between performance issues, leadership coaching, hiring, compliance, and “one more urgent fire,” culture work often gets pushed...

An Important Survey Question You’re Not Asking

Employee Appreciation Day is March 6th here in the United States, and with it often come social events, catered lunches, swag bags, and gift cards. It’s kind of annoying, if you ask me.  Not because you shouldn’t appreciate your people, but because leaders are fairly...

Hear From the Experts: What Really Happens in Upstander Training

We can tell you that our Upstander Training Toolkit really works in our emails. But the most powerful proof comes from our expert facilitators who deliver this very same training to our own clients. Dr. Toni Herndon and Dr. Bob Berk have facilitated this program to...

Why Organizations Create Toxic Rockstars (And How to Stop Them)

Research shows that more than 70% of employees report experiencing incivility or disrespectful behavior at work, and over half say these behaviors reduce their productivity and morale. Meanwhile, almost every HR or people leader has heard some version of these...

7 Questions to Answer Before Launching a Training Program

Organizations spend a staggering amount on training, yet the results often fall short.  In the United States alone, organizations invested $102.8 billion in training in 2025, up from $98 billion in 2024, yet research consistently shows that only 10–20% of training...

Is Your L&D Equipped to Support a Healthy Workplace?

Learning and Development (L&D) teams are drowning in activity. Leadership academies, compliance refreshers, microlearning libraries, LMS migrations, another platform, another rollout, another “strategic priority.” Motion is constant and it may be keeping your...

Culture Eats Your Policies for Breakfast

If I see or hear the quote, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” by Peter Drucker one more time, I might vomit. Everyone loves this phrase, but I’m convinced no one knows what it even means. If they did, Civility Partners would be out of a job. While I haven’t read...

Navigating a Toxic Workplace: Practical Strategies for Leaders, HR, and Employees

When toxic behavior - such as gossip, harsh sarcasm, incivility, rudeness, public shaming, serial interrupting, microaggressions, and unresolved conflict - is brushed off as personality differences or “not that bad” it normalizes the behavior. As leaders look the...

Start the Year on a Good Note (Literally): Your Workplace Playlist

Research consistently shows that music affects how our brains process emotion, connection, and stress. According to the American Psychological Association, music can reduce cortisol levels, helping lower stress and anxiety while improving emotional regulation. In...