Why do nurses choose to stay silent?: A qualitative study.

Aim: This study aimed to explore nurses' views and experiences regarding remaining silent. Background: Silence is a barrier for organizational improvement and can occur for many reasons; it cannot be simply defined as the opposite of speaking out. Method: An exploratory qualitative design was used for this study. Data were collected using semi‐structured interviews in 2016 with 24 nurses who were recruited by using a snowball sampling method. Results: Three themes emerged as a result of the thematic analysis: fear, silence climate and disengagement. The first theme contained three subthemes: avoidance of being seen as a troublemaker, financial loss and reluctance to reveal lack of ability or knowledge. The results indicated that nurses remained silent when they felt unsupported or psychologically unsafe in their work environment. Conclusion: Encouraging nurses to express their opinions is essential for creating a psychologically safe nursing work environment and an organizational climate that supports open communication. Because the majority of healthcare professionals are nurses, they can act as role models and change agents for other nurses if they are encouraged to share their ideas and opinions without fear of retribution. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? Silence negatively affects work environment and causes job dissatisfaction.Silence is a threat to the development of new ideas and prevents nurses from raising concerns about critical issues. What this paper adds? Nurses remain silent when they fear losing their jobs, showing weakness or being labelled as a troublemaker.Nurses' work environment affects their decision to speak up.If nurses do not receive any support or see any change, they tend not to speak up. The implications of this paper: Hospital managers should support a work environment that encourages open communication and productive feedback systems.Silence can be prevented by creating a psychologically safe environment in which no one is judged for their opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]