NURS 6053 Discuss Workplace Environment Assessment

NURS 6053 Discuss Workplace Environment Assessment
NURS 6053 Discuss Workplace Environment Assessment
How healthy is your workplace?
You may think your current organization operates seamlessly, or you may feel it has many issues. You may experience or even observe things that give you pause. Yet, much as you wouldn’t try to determine the health of a patient through mere observation, you should not attempt to gauge the health of your work environment based on observation and opinion. Often, there are issues you perceive as problems that others do not; similarly, issues may run much deeper than leadership recognizes.
There are many factors and measures that may impact organizational health. Among these is civility. While an organization can institute policies designed to promote such things as civility, how can it be sure these are managed effectively? In this Discussion, you will examine the use of tools in measuring workplace civility.
To Prepare:
Review the Resources and examine the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, found on page 20 of Clark (2015).
Review and complete the Work Environment Assessment Template in the Resources.
By Day 3 of Week 7
Post a brief description of the results of your Work Environment Assessment. Based on the results, how civil is your workplace? Explain why your workplace is or is not civil. Then, describe a situation where you have experienced incivility in the workplace. How was this addressed? Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 6 of Week 7
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by sharing ideas for how shortcomings discovered in their evaluations and/or their examples of incivility could have been managed more effectively.
Submission and Grading Information
Results of the Clark Health Workplace Inventory concluded that the organization I am employed with is a moderately healthy
workplace (Clark, 2015). I am surprised that the results fell in the category they did, I expected a lower score. The reasoning behind
the score I expected was because of the current pandemic. Employees are leaving for higher paying jobs and many have been
unhappy with the stress caused by the pandemic. However, the employees of the organization share the same vision to improve
the lives of the community and we have leaders that are open to listening to our concerns, maintaining a civil work environment. I
was also surprised by the emphasis by the assessment regarding employee self-care and teamwork. Even during the pandemic, our
organization as encouraged self-care giving quiet rooms with massage chairs and our manager has been available even on
weekends and late at night to ensure the unit’s needs are being met. During the stress and chaos of the pandemic, I moved to the
intensive care unit. I was met by a unit that was constantly full of high acuity patients than normal even for the ICU. However, I
found that the team worked well together and communicated effectively presenting a work environment that was civil and healthy
and I am proud to be apart of .
The main idea that I had regarding the results was that the organization runs smoothly because of the shared mission, values
NURS 6053 Discuss Workplace Environment Assessment
and goals of the organization. Christus Good Shepherd’s mission is to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ with core values of
dignity, integrity, excellence, compassion, and stewardship. The vision of Christus Health is to be a leader and advocate in the
creation of innovative health and wellness solutions to improve the lives of the individuals of the community so that all may
experience the healing love of Jesus Christ (Christus Health, 2021). However, as shown by the results of the assessment not falling
in the top category, the current pandemic has put a strain on certain aspects including competitive pay and tension in everyday
work.
One instance where I have felt that I had an uncivil encounter was when I was in the ICU and one of the physicians started yelling
orders at me during a stressful situation and griping in front of the patient that it was late in the day to be inserting lines and such.
Clark (2015) states that the most effective way to stop incivility is to address it when it occurs. However, this takes practice and
requires effective communication and competent dialogue. At the time, I was unable to address the physician outside of the
patient’s room, however I have a wonderful team that did address it with the doctor. The team member gently spoke with the
physician in the appropriate environment and reminded him that we are all exhausted, but that appropriate communication is
essential to decrease work stress between staff and provide safe and effective patient care. Working under conditions of civil
communication, promotes role performance of team members (Liu, et. al., 2020). Even under stressful working conditions, it is
important for each team member to promote a civil working environment to support optimum work performance of each team
member.
References
Christus Health (2021). Christus Health: Our vision, mission, and values. Retrieved from https://www.christushealth.org/about/our-
mission-values-and-vision
Clark, C.M. (2015). Conversations to inspire and promote a more civil workplace. American Nurse Today, 10(11), 18-23. Retrieved
from .
Liu, Y., Vashdi, D. R., Cross, T., Bamberger, P., & Erez, A. (2020). Exploring the puzzle of civility: Whether and when team civil
communication influences team members’ role performance. Human Relations, 73(2), 215–241. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/0018726719830164
RE: Discussion – Week 7
Initial Post
Based off the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, my place of employment is rated as mildly healthy. It scored an average of 69 (Clark, 2019). Overall, this assessment made me think about what my organization has to offer and how I am valued as an employee but there are a few things that need to improve. Civility is about more than just politeness, although politeness is a necessary first step (Spath & Dahnke, 2021). It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one’s preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreements (Spath & Dahnke, 2021). It is political in the sense that it is a prerequisite for civic action. But it is political, too, in the sense that it is about negotiating interpersonal power such that everyone’s voice is heard, and nobody is ignored (Spath & Dahnke, 2021).
After completing the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory and scoring a 69 for my place of employment, this lets me know that my workplace is mildly healthy and a civil place of employment (Clark, 2019). A mildly healthy workplace is one in which workers and managers collaborate to use a continual improvement process to protect and promote the health, safety and well-being of all workers and the sustainability of the workplace by considering the following, based on identified needs (Stoewen, 2016):
Health and safety concerns in the physical work environment;
Health, safety and well-being concerns in the psychosocial work environment, including organization of work and workplace culture;
Personal health resources in the workplace; and
Ways of participating in the community to improve the health of workers, their families and other members of the community.
There was a time when I faced incivility at my workplace. After Covid-19 started the healthcare system took a tumble. Nursing shortage grew even bigger, and more nurses left their primary place of employment and went traveling. One morning working on a covid unit with 16 patients who were all Covid and there were only two nurses. It was me who have been a nurse for over 10 years and a new nurse with less than 1 year of experience. We both had 8 patients and they kept us busy. I became so tired and exhausted and just started crying. It seems like the floor manager did not care because she was supposed to help us and was no where to be found. Then nursing supervisor was contacted and it was like they could not send us any help and therefore we had to toughen it out. At that moment I felt my place of employment was incivility and we were not valued as employees although we were putting our nursing license on the line as well as not providing the proper care to our patients.
References
Clark, C. (2019, November 11). Conversations to inspire and promote a more civil workplace. Let’s end the silence that surrounds incivility. Retrieved from American Nurse Today website:
Spath, T., & Dahnke, C. (2021). What is Civility? – The Institute for Civility in Goverment. Retrieved from The Institute for Civility in Goverment website:
Stoewen, D. L. (2016). Wellness at work: Building healthy workplaces. The Canadian Veterinary Journal = La Revue Veterinaire Canadienne, 57(11), 1188–1190. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5081153/