Experiences of Patient Incivility: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Incivility is one of the most prevalent forms of interpersonal mistreatment. Although studies have examined the full range of experiences of incivility against nurses and other hospital personnel, very few studies examined the forms of incivility that patients face in a hospital. OBJECTIVE: To empirically investigate the range of uncivil experiences targeted against patients. Our study furthers our understanding of the phenomenology of incivility from the patients’ perspective. METHOD: We used interpretative phenomenological analysis to analyze participant’s (n = 173) experiences of incivility in a hospital. RESULTS: We identified 6 major themes of incivility, namely Insensitivity, Identity Stigma, Gaslighting, Infantilization, Poor Communication, and Ignored. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight that instances of incivility are present in almost all aspects of the patient experience and take on unique forms, given the patient’s role in the hospital. Implications for health consequences are discussed.