Discussion – Week 7COLLAPSE
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
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
Chapter 5, “Collaborative Leadership Contexts: Networks, Communication, Decision Making, and Motivation” (pp. 121–144)
Chapter 9, “Creating and Shaping the Organizational Environment and Culture to Support Practice Excellence” (pp. 247–278)
Chapter 10, “Building Cohesive and Effective Teams” (pp. 279–298)
Select at least ONE of the following:
Clark, C. M., Olender, L., Cardoni, C., & Kenski, D. (2011). Fostering civility in nursing education and practice: Nurse leader perspectives. Journal of Nursing Administration, 41(7/8), 324–330. doi:10.1097/NNA.0b013e31822509c4
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Clark, C. M. (2018). Combining cognitive rehearsal, simulation, and evidence-based scripting to address incivility. Nurse Educator. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Griffin, M., & Clark, C. M. (2014). Revisiting cognitive rehearsal as an intervention against incivility and lateral violence in nursing: 10 years later. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 45(12), 535–542. doi:10.3928/00220124-20141122-02
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
Document: Work Environment Assessment Template (Word document)
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2009a). Working with Groups and Teams [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Week 7 Discussion: Initial Post
Workplace Environment Assessment Results
According to the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, my work environment result has a sum total of 62, otherwise known as “barely healthy.” Two things that surprised me about the results were less than adequate communication on all levels and ineffective conflict resolution amongst peers. This barely healthy work environment has led to a very high turnover rate amongst staff, thus dropping retention rates amid the organization. Inevitably, this has offered keen insight into one idea that I noticed prior to conducting the assessment, organizational compensation. In an attempt to retain sufficient staff, the organization offers competitive salaries, benefits, compensations, and other rewards.
Civility or Non-Civility
The results of the assessment show that there is much work to be done regarding the civility of my work environment. Based on the results, the environment is barely healthy and one would argue that there is an aura of incivility. The biggest concern posed towards my work environment is lack of communication and respect. Staff are not having respectful, honest, crucial conversations that need to be had in order to make the work environment thrive. Instead, feelings are harbored, conflicts never get resolved and we have a revolving door of staff leaving the organization as soon as they join. Griffin and Clark (2014), incivility has no place in organizational development for it is harmful to the work environment. Measures must be put in place by organizational leadership to ensure shared responsibility in addressing the problem appropriately.
How I Experienced Incivility and Addressed It
Therefore, Clark (2015) speaks of the adventitious benefits of the DESC model when attempting to structure civil conversation. My organization could benefit from the implementation of the DESC model to address difficult conversation. For example, a bulk of the miscommunication comes from the nursing staff. As a blatant display of incivility, staff often time gossip behind the backs of peers and retain feelings of resentment towards one another. There is no discretion. As a new nurse on the unit, I recall several times where I was often ridiculed with no clear communication to follow. As an organizational standard, you are paired with a preceptor for the entirety of orientation. One of the main roles to learn during this time is the art of triaging and setting an acuity for patients for the department. As the triage nurse, you are the first person to lay eyes on the patient, determining for others in the department how severe patient’s condition is and how many resources they will need. During the triage process, there are several questions and commands that must be completed on every patient. New to the process, I was unfortunately missing some of the questions. In turn, this upset a number of the older, more experienced nurses, causing them to text my preceptor that I was not sufficiently trained. This upset me because I had no idea of my wrongdoing, for no one ever approached me to show me the correct method. Being the type of person that I am, I always look for resolution to problems. I then, sought out the nurse and approached her about the problem. I was sure to let her know that I was aware of the ridicule and I offered for her to show me the appropriate way to ask the triage questions. “For the sake of patient safety, healthcare professionals need to focus on our higher purpose—providing safe, effective patient care—and communicate respectfully with
each other” (Clark, 2015).
To apply the DESC theory, the experienced nurse would have described to me the problem she had with me not asking all questions to the patient. Next, she would express her concern that the patient would not be adequately triaged. Following, she could then state alternatives as to how I may ask the questions. Lastly, she could have presented the consequences that the patient would eventually suffer, for the medical team might miss an important aspect of care, after not adequately being triaged. All in all, we as nurses have “professional and ethical obligation to foster civility and healthy work environments to protect patient safety” (Clark, 2019, p.64).
References
Clark, C. M. (2015). Conversations to inspire and promote a more civil workplace. American Nurse Today, 10(11), 18–23. Retrieved from https://www.americannursetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ant11-CE-Civility-1023.pdf
Cynthia M., C. (2019). Combining Cognitive Rehearsal, Simulation, and Evidence-Based Scripting to Address Incivility. Nurse Educator, (2), 64. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563
Griffin, M., & Clark, C. M. (2014). Revisiting cognitive rehearsal as an intervention against incivility and lateral violence in nursing: 10 years later. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 45(12), 535-542.
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