Workplace Environment Assessment Discussion
Workplace Environment Assessment Discussion
ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL NURSING ESSAY ASSIGNMENT ON: Workplace Environment Assessment Discussion
Question Description
I don’t know how to handle this Nursing question and need guidance.
Discussion: 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.
Workplace Environment Assessment Discussion
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.
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.
Resources:
Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory, found on page 20 of Clark (2015).
https://www.americannursetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ant11-CE-Civility-1023.pdf
Example of what my classmate are posting:
2 days ago Cary Carver
RE: Discussion – Week 7
COLLAPSE
The final score of my work environment assessment indicated that I work in a mildly healthy work environment. This result came from a publicization by CM Clark (2015), who created a 20 question survey used to evaluate the overall health and civility in the workplace. In this survey, each of the 20 phrases can be individually scored on a scale of one to five. A score off five indicating the statement is completely true, and one meaning the statement is completely untrue. Surveys that produce this data are important because they force a holistic view of civility in the workplace. If not completed routinely, no one will realize the deterioration in a workforce until the adverse effects are witnessed. Regularly assessing the work environment will allow for early detection and intervention.The impact of an uncivil work environment can not only lead to worse patient care but also come with a large financial expense. Lewis and Malecha (2011) estimate that the cost of unproductivity in an uncivil workplace can be as high as $12,000 per nurse.
When I completed the Healthy Workplace Inventory, I found several key areas that resulted in a reduced score. If these areas could improve, my facility could become a very healthy workplace. Employee wellness is what I consider to be our worst area. While there are several programs promoted to hospital staff, no effort is made to allow nursing staff to attend any of these functions. Due to the workflow for nursing staff, it is impossible to participate in any scheduled wellness events.
The second area of weakness is poor workload distribution. Efforts are made at the beginning of shifts to balance workload, but as a facility, we do not do enough to redistribute work as the day goes on. In the field of nursing, the environment is always changing. What was considered a reasonable assignment at the start of a shift, can often turn into an unmanageable workload. As a facility, we need to improve our intra-shift interventions to balance workloads.
An example of the failure to promote a healthy workplace was when the facility started a daily group exercise program. The goal was to bring employees together to encourage fitness and health. However, nurses being unable to disengage from their daily tasks felt left out of this program. To include nursing staff in activities, planning the activities should consist of a way for nursing staff to be relieved and allowed to attend. Having the opportunity to disengage from work for 20-30 minutes per day to focus on health would be very useful in improving the overall health of the workplace.
Currently, no one has addressed the problems with nursing health promotion. However, there is one solution that would improve the access nurses have to events focused on health. By having one nurse that could assume care of patients and free other nurses to attend events throughout the day, nursing staff could attend events and have the assurance their patients were receiving appropriate care. This practice would ensure the inclusion of nursing staff in events created for employee health and improve the overall health of the workplace.
One proven method to reduce workplace incivility is cognitive rehearsal (Griffin & Clark 2014). The primary purpose of cognitive rehearsal is to make sure all staff knows that uncivil behavior is not ok. For nurses, cognitive rehearsal can be a very useful tool used to establish a healthy workplace. Three steps are used in the cognitive rehearsal include participating in didactic instruction, learning and rehearsing specific phrases used during uncivil encounters, and participating in practice sessions to reinforce instruction and rehearsal. By putting cognitive rehearsal into place, the staff receives education on not only civil behavior but rehearses to develop a real understanding of behaviors that hurt a workforce.
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/uplo…
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), 535–544. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.3928/002…
Lewis P.S., & Malecha A. (2011). The impact of workplace incivility on the work environment, manager skill, and productivity. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 41, 41 – 47. 10.1097/NNA.0b013e3182002a4c
1 day ago, Kathleen Muller
RE: Initial Post – Week 7
COLLAPSE
Safe patient care is dependent on good communication, even in the most stressful of times (Clark, 2018). Civil communication is so important that the American Nurses Association (ANA) includes fostering a safe, ethical, civil workplace in their code of ethics, to ensure a workplace which is civil and kind (Clark). Cynthia Clark developed a tool to determine the perceived health of one’s workplace. The results of the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory scores for my facility did not surprise me. The score was a 70, which is only mildly healthy. One of the things I am most disappointed in is the low retention rate at my hospital, and in my unit.Although I am not sure what the actual statistics are, I do know many highly qualified nurses who have come and gone after a short amount of employment. My facility tried to remedy this a few years ago by offering pay increases closer to our competitors’ salaries. This was a good short-term fix and things settled for a year or so. Another item that received a low score was about individual achievement celebrations. In my unit, we never celebrate individual accomplishments. We had a secretary graduate from nursing school who was recognized by our manager, we have several nurses bridge over to get their BSN’s with no celebrations, and when I got married, there was nothing done to acknowledge my special day. I think supervisors need to realize that small gestures like cards or celebratory banners can make a huge difference in morale, and make employees feel treasured. As for civility, my workplace tends to be very civil and we work well as a team. When a nurse is feeling overwhelmed with their patient load, there is always someone who steps up to help. The only time I have witnessed extreme incivility in my unit was with a nurse who was hired to be a resource for our higher acuity NICU babies. When giving report one day, she literally screamed at the on-coming nurse because she was so busy and did not have time to bathe a baby on the previous shift. She was so mad at the prospect of this task being passed on to her, that she could be heard screaming down a 15-bed hall. This was not her first incident, but because she had a deeper knowledge base for our new acuity level of care, she got away with this behavior for months. As a team, we felt betrayed by our manager, who allowed this toxic behavior and disfunction to continue for as long as it did until she was asked to resign.
Clark et al., 2011 states that the Joint Commission indicated that more than 50% of nurses have been or will be the victim of incivility or bullying in the workplace. Clark et al., goes on to say that factors which contribute to stress in a nurse’s workplace include work overload, unclear roles, unclear expectations, organizational conditions, and a lack of knowledge and skills. In the situation I witnessed, the behavior was very distracting, and was contributed by unclear expectations. The nurse who was hired to be a resource, was only interested in putting in her 12 hours, and her lack of understanding of her purpose to our unit led to many unpleasant encounters. It is imperative that leaders direct us toward and expect us to deliver best practice care (Pishgooi et al., 2019). Without leadership with which to model, incivility can easily trickle into a workplace.
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/uplo…
Clark, C., 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
Pishgooie, H., Atashzadeh, F., Falcó, A., & Lotfi, Z. (2019). Correlation between nursing managers’ leadership styles and nurses’ job stress and anticipated turnover. Journal of Nursing Management (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 27(3), 527–534. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/jon…
Workplace Environment Assessment Discussion
Workplace Environment Assessment Discussion
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
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.