Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay

Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay

Title: Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay

Assignment  Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay

 

Incivility with healthcare settings affects the people, team, organizations and eventually patient care. Research indicates that bullying increases the incidences of adverse events and treatment errors (Houck & Colbert, 2017). It is therefore essential to reduce employee incivility by identifying its potential causes. The purpose of this paper is to outline the results of a work environment assessment executed in a current organization, outline concepts in a selected article and how they relate with the assessment, outline two strategies that can be used to handle the shortcomings within the organization and two strategies to reinforce the successful practices identified.

In her article Clark (2015) outlines a questionnaire that assesses the health of a workplace, stress, and emotion handling measures, respectful communication and provision of safe quality patient care. The questionnaire was used to evaluate my current organization and in line with my perception, the score was 89, an indication that the organization is moderately civil. The work environment is supported and provides the needed support. The organization also does not tolerate rumors, welcome new colleagues, communicate respectively, share pertinent information with others, encourages constructive feedback and ensures that the vision, mission, and values of the organization are upheld. Additionally, although nurses have a higher workload, they are compensated well and are given autonomy.

On the flip side, the organization lacks an open door policy largely because it is scattered throughout Pittsburg. Teamwork dynamics are also limited because of hierarchal nature of the organization where physicians and administrators are more esteemed than nurses. The effect is underestimated role of nurses and disrespect in their opinion about patient care. Employees are not unfairly but they are treated differently depending on the role each one plays which undermines teamwork efforts. Value differences are also seen across generations with older nurses pointing out that younger generation does not maintain eye contact during conversation but rather they are preoccupied with their smartphones.

Concepts on Making Workplace More Civil

According to Clark (2015), for an organizational to have a healthy work environment, they should share the team norms, values, and visions, create and sustain high level of organizational team and individual civility, emphasize leadership and engage in civility conversations at all organization levels. The author states that the most effective way of stopping incivility is through speaking up when it happens which can only be achieved through effective communication and meaningful dialogue. Organizations, therefore, have to practice these measures to ensure that they become part of their norms. However, the measures are not easy to implement and leaders have to encourage open discussion and ongoing dialogue on aspects that create a healthy workplace. Some employees find it hard to engage in stressful conservation due to lack of skills, to avoid emotionally unsafe situations, power differences or belief that it won’t change anything.

To engage in stressful conversations, Clark (2015) proposes the use of cognitive rehearsal because it fosters communication, creates a more-conflict –capable workforce, enhances nurse satisfaction and improves patient care.  She also proposes the use of DESC model since it has an evidence-based backing. In any model selected, Clark (2015) asserts that one should learn, practice and reinforce the required skills until responses become second nature. The learner also has to make the responses personal.

In line with my current place of work, there is a need to enhance skills in handling stressful conversations. As indicated, the organization lacks an open door policy and treats people differently. Cognitive rehearsal would be ideal because it would help in didactic and interactive learning and instructions, teach employees specific phrases to use during uncivil encounters and creates sessions that reinforce instruction and rehearsal (Clark, 2015).

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A shortcoming observed from the assessment is the lack of an open door policy. The organizations should ensure that employees are free to talk to manager any time. Employees should also be able to meet with senior leadership and eventually trust levels will increase

and strong relationships will be built (Wei, Roberts, Strickler & Corbett, 2019). Clear policies on how to report incidences and handle them should be set to create a healthy work environment. The open-door policy will also encourage feedback and better communication as well as enhance the transparency of the organization. Secondly the hospital treats people differently which hampers teamwork. To promote teamwork, there is a need to create a blame-free work environment and promote workplace safety.  To be precise opportunities should be created that promote the relationship among nurses and physicians and ensures that nurses can easily report any uncivil behavior or workplace violence (Houck & Colbert, 2017).

Reinforcing Successful Practices

The organization ensures that its mission, vision, and values are upheld.  It should, therefore, emphasize the need to create a culture of respect and incorporate the culture in the core values and strategic planning initiatives (Clark, 2015).  A code of conduct that shows how nurses and physicians should collaborate should be developed. Secondly, since the organization is supportive, it should create and sustain civil, health work environments where communication is clear and conflicts are managed in a respectful and responsible way.

 

Sample Answer for Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay Included

Review the Resources and examine the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, found on page 20 of Clark (2015).

Review the Work Environment Assessment Template.

Reflect on the output of your Discussion post regarding your evaluation of workplace civility and the feedback received from colleagues.
Select and review one or more of the following articles found in the Resources:
Clark, Olender, Cardoni, and Kenski (2011)
Clark (2018)
Clark (2015)
Griffin and Clark (2014)
The Assignment (3-6 pages total):

Part 1: Work Environment Assessment (1-2 pages)

Review the Work Environment Assessment Template you completed for this Module’s Discussion.

Describe the results of the Work Environment Assessment you completed on your workplace.
Identify two things that surprised you about the results and one idea you believed prior to conducting the Assessment that was confirmed.
Explain what the results of the Assessment suggest about the health and civility of your workplace.

My discussion topic:

The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements clearly articulates the nurse’s obligation to foster safe, ethical, civil workplaces (Clark, C, 2015). It should be a requirement for healthcare facilities to incorporate this philosophy in the work place. Sadly this is not the case more often than we would like to see.
After taking the test I was not really surprised to score an 89. I work in a fairly stable environment and they support us when called upon to do so. Some things needed to be worked on such as providing \”open door\” policy so much, and that is partially because we are a huge facility where people are scattered through out Pittsburgh. Also team work could be improved, but I feel thats standard to most organizations. I also evaluated how employees were treated fairly, that was a huge down score, I work in a facility with therapists, MD, psychologists, and nurses. So we are treated differently, no one is treated unfairly, just different. Lastly, the workload being distributed fairly, reasonable, and manageable. As nurses we have more autonomy and carry a heavier case load, but our payscale is higher as well.
Knowledge of lateral violence in nursing appeared to allow newly licensed nurses to depersonalize it, thus allowing them to ask questions and continue to learn. The learned cognitive responses helped them confront the lateral violence offender. Confrontation was described as difficult but resulted in the resolution of the lateral violence behavior (Griffin, m, 20014). I am a firm believer being honest and upfront saves time, energy and frustration at the work plae and in life. Being honest set boundaries and allows nurses to voice their opinions. Getting third and fourth hand information is never desirable and unwanted at the work place. Nurses advocate for their patients, now we need to learn to advocate for themselves. The conflict may not be wanted, but the outcome will make a huge difference.

Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay 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.
Griffin M. (2004). Teaching cognitive rehearsal as a shield for lateral violence: an intervention for newly licensed nurses. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 35(6), 257–263. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org

Part 2: Reviewing the Literature (1-2 pages)
Briefly describe the theory or concept presented in the article(s) you selected.
Explain how the theory or concept presented in the article(s) relates to the results of your Work Environment Assessment.

Explain how your organization could apply the theory highlighted in your selected article(s) to improve organizational health and/or create stronger work teams. Be specific and provide examples.

Part 3: Evidence-Based Strategies to Create High-Performance Interprofessional Teams (1–2 pages)
Recommend at least two strategies, supported in the literature, that can be implemented to address any shortcomings revealed in your Work Environment Assessment.
Recommend at least two strategies that can be implemented to bolster successful practices revealed in your Work Environment Assessment.

According to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), a healthy work environment is characterized by six standards, such as skilled communication, effective decision making, true collaboration, meaningful recognition, appropriate staffing, and authentic leadership (Halm, 2019). Nurse leaders play a significant role in ensuring that all the six standards are met to promote quality outcomes for both the nursing staff and patients. Several strategies are thus adopted by nurse leaders to promote and sustain a positive work environment. Such strategies include promoting a safe place for staff members to voice their concerns and ideas; making sure that values and expectations are clear; keeping the environments simple; keeping the work area uncluttered and orderly; and recognizing volunteerism.

Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to several issues which compromise the work environment of healthcare personnel, if not well mitigated (Raso, Fitzpatrick, & Masick, 2020). For example, with appropriate planning, hospitals have been able to acquire adequate resources, such as appropriate staffing and the availability of enough PPEs for staff members, to promote a safe and healthy working environment. However, nurses working in remote settings have raised concerns regarding inadequate staffing, and mandatory overtime, which creates an unhealthy work environment, leading to increased nurse pressure, injury rates, fatigue, and compromised provision of safe care.

The American Nurses Association has outlined seven bills of rights for RNs to promote the art of negotiation in enhancing a safe and healthy work environment (Scruth, Garcia, & Buchner, 2018). Nurses are thus required to freely and acquiescently advocate for themselves and their patients, through communication and collaboration, to promote a healthy work environment. This helps them avoid the feeling of victimization, devalued, and unmotivated, hence promoting service provision.

 

Assignment: Fostering Healthy Working Environments Essay References

Halm, M. (2019). The influence of appropriate staffing and healthy work environments on patient and nurse outcomes. American Journal of Critical Care, 28(2), 152-156. https://doi.org/10.4037/ajcc2019938

Raso, R., Fitzpatrick, J. J., & Masick, K. (2020). Clinical nurses’ perceptions of authentic nurse leadership and healthy work environment. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 50(9), 489-494. DOI: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000921

Scruth, E. A., Garcia, S., & Buchner, L. (2018). Work-life quality, healthy work environments, and nurse retention. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 32(3), 111-113. DOI: 10.1097/NUR.0000000000000376

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Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource