The impact of vulnerability and exposure to pervasive interprofessional incivility among medical staff on wellbeing

INTRODUCTION: Traditional methods for modelling human interactions within organisational contexts are often hindered by the complexity inherent within these systems. Building on new approaches to information modelling in the social sciences and drawing on the work of scholars in transdisciplinary fields, we proposed that a reliable model of human interaction as well as its emergent properties can be demonstrated using theories related to emergent information. METHODS: We demonstrated these dynamics through a test case related to data from a prevalence survey of incivility among medical staff. For each survey respondent we defined their vulnerability profile based upon a combination of their biographical characteristics, such as age, gender, and length of employment within a hospital and the hospital type (private or public). We modelled the interactions between the composite vulnerability profile of staff against their reports of their exposure to incivility and the consequent negative impact on their wellbeing. RESULTS: We found that vulnerability profile appeared to be proportionally related to the extent to which they were exposed to rudeness in the workplace and to a negative impact on subjective wellbeing. DISCUSSION: This model can potentially be used to tailor resources to improve the wellbeing of hospital medical staff at increased risk of facing incivility, bullying and harassment at their workplaces.