QUESTION

I took the Work Environment Assessment and my current place of employment scored in the 70s. A score in the ’70s indicates a moderately healthy workplace. I work with some great people; however, there are times when lack of resources, absent management, and personal conflicts make the workplace not as civil as it should be. Campbell and Patrician (2020) state that “favorable nursing work environments have been associated with better nurse and patient outcomes” (Campbell & Patrician, 2020, p. 927). There are many ways to help achieve a healthier nursing work environment. When management is run by leaders who have the team’s best interest at heart it makes for a much more pleasant place to work. Not only does it make work better for employees it also helps ensure patients are more effectively cared for. Page et al. (2021) state that “effective leadership is vital for high-quality patient care” (Page et al. 2021, p. 1385). When leaders ensure that staff is appreciated it pays huge dividends in the overall daily life in the hospital. Heinen et al. (2019) state that “developments in health care ask for well-trained nursing leaders” (Heinen et al. 2019, p. 2378). Being well-trained is important but how leaders relate to their staff is even more paramount. One example of incivility I have seen at work is management continuing to give favorable assignments to certain staff. This causes many issues and makes staff resent each other. This took place over several months until enough staff complained. Our leadership decided that it would be fair if each day was randomized in order to decrease favoritism. So far this has been popular and has led to a more cohesive unit.

Michelle R

Discusion post #2Top of Form

Upon completing the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory my score was 51, which signifies it is an unhealthy workplace. There are various factors as to why my workplace is unhealthy, starting with staffing. We are consistently short staffed, and nurses must suffer the consequences leading to high nurse to patient ratios. Unfortunately during the recent rise of the Omicron Variant we had up to 13 patients each in our covid unit. Management does not take the effort needed to hire more staff despite current staff voicing concerns. “Healthy work environments, which are cultivated through open and purposeful communication among interprofessional groups, support optimal care delivery and ensure positive patient outcomes.” (Kleemeier, 2020) Management has also been poor at my hospital, constantly changing with revolving new faces. Our current leadership is ineffective and not supportive. Instead, we are faced with stressful work environment, workload, and demanding urgent patient needs and the obligation to promptly act when the patient rings the call bell, with everything else we are juggling with during our shift. It is leadership’s responsibility to ensure a health, nurturing work environment. “The quality of leadership is considered important because it influences employees’ job satisfaction, job turnover and health” (Vidman & Strömberg, 2020) Creating a healthy work environment enables the nurse, to provide their full potential, increase patient care quality, and less incidents. “Where structural empowerment exists, that is, where work structures are put in place that promote empowerment, it has been shown to promote job satisfaction and reduce burn-out in nurses” (Gottlieb et al., 2021)