Sample Paper – Week 9  Assignment NURS 6053 – Workplace Environment Assessment Workplace Environment Assessment

Name of Student

Walden University

NURS 6053

Interprofessional Organization & System Leadership

Dr. Elvira G. Phelps

(Due date)

Workplace Environment Assessment

Incivility is a well-recognized and common issue in clinical practice as well as nursing education. As a contrast to civility, which involves considerate and respectful participation, incivility is referred to as low-intensity behavior characterized by various behaviors like being rude, impolite, or discourteous. It can be bidirectional and take many forms. It can occur between nurses, subordinates, and those in positions of leadership as well as from leaders to nurses in lower-ranking positions. Incivility in the healthcare workplace can involve repeated disrespectful, offensive, or discouraging behavior, unfair punishments, and misuse of power that can discourage and distress receivers. It ultimately creates strain and decreases the satisfaction and confidence of employees (Raheem & Cosby, 2016). This paper aims to describe the results of the Work Environment Assessment completed for my workplace and explain what they suggest about the civility and health of the workplace. It will also reveal a theory relating to the results and how the organization can apply it to create stronger work teams and improve organizational health. Strategies from the literature that can be implemented to bolster successful practices and address shortcomings revealed in the assessment will also be recommended.

Work Environment Assessment

The overall civility score of the workplace was 56, which falls in the unhealthy score range from 50 to 59 (Clark, 2015). Two surprising things were the statements; “communication at all levels of the organization is transparent, direct, and respectful.” and “teamwork and collaboration are promoted and evident,” which had deficient scores. It can be the cause of the exceptionally high turnover, especially among registered nurses within the department, as well as decreased job satisfaction scores and retention rates. An unhealthy and uncivil work environment can negatively influence staff commitment to the organization as well as their productivity. While working on the floor, there have been experiences of miscommunication, especially in changes in shifts. One scenario that portrays the issue involved hurrying up to get patient reports and stabilize another one as an intensive care unit (ICU) patient was waiting to transfer to the floor. My work phone was frequently ringing as the ICU nurse tried to give me a report. She eventually rolled the new patient to my level and expected a report right away as she had to go home. She was uncivil as I tried to apologize, and she responded, saying, “whatever, I don’t have time for this. I want to go home.” I respectfully acknowledged her incontinence that I might have caused, but my patient’s safety was my priority. Additionally, I explained to her that she needed to address me respectfully as we are both professionals, and the wellbeing of our patients comes first. One prior belief that was confirmed by the results is that the only thing helping the organization retain staff is the benefits and competitive salaries. The statement “the organization provides competitive salaries, benefits, compensations…” had the highest score in the assessment.

The results of the assessment suggest that the workplace is unhealthy and uncivil. Communication is lacking, and this impacts the health of the organization while the lack of teamwork harms the work environment. Broome and Marshall (2017) point out that communication and teamwork are among the critically essential core values for successful collaboration that shapes the quality of care for patients and families. Effective collaboration is not only personally and professionally satisfying to those involved, but also contributes to a unified and holistic approach to patients and clients, facilitates faster internal decision making, reduces cost through shared resources and promotes innovation. Healthcare professionals are socialized and educated in discipline-specific frameworks. They must move out of such habits for them to work together, and this requires sensitivity to other theoretical foundations as well as ways of thinking and knowing.

Review of Literature

Many studies have been conducted to establish the best evidence that can guide practice to decrease and address incivility in the workplace. One of the articles reviewed was titled “Revisiting cognitive rehearsal as an intervention against incivility and lateral violence in nursing: 10 years later” by Martha Griffin, and Cynthia Clark (2014).  The authors had the aim of conducting a literature update on cognitive reh