Surgeons and nurses both pick on nurses when they bully, but they attack in very different ways. Surgeons tend to be aggressive, all fists and fury, neck veins bulging and expletives — and sometimes instruments — flying. Nurses tend to be passive-aggressive, cunning, vengeful and deceitful assassins, delicately slipping their stiletto between the ribs of an unsuspecting colleague. Regardless of whether the bullying is in your face or behind your back, the result is the same: a dysfunctional workplace, a dangerous setting for your patients and nurses hurting deep down inside.