Assignment: Workplace Environment Assessment

Clearly, diagnosis is a critical aspect of healthcare. However, the ultimate purpose of a diagnosis is the development and application of a series of treatments or protocols. Isolated recognition of a health issue does little to resolve it.

In this module’s Discussion, you applied the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory to diagnose potential problems with the civility of your organization. In this Portfolio Assignment, you will continue to analyze the results and apply published research to the development of a proposed treatment for any issues uncovered by the assessment.

To Prepare:

• 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.

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.

Work Environment Assessment Results

A healthy work environment (HWE) promotes civility among nurses and their leadership. Incivility can lead to unsafe working conditions, poor patient care, and increased medical costs (Clark, Olender, Cardoni, & Kenski, 2011). Nurses experience twice the amount of workplace crimes compared to other healthcare providers and are four times more likely to experience these crimes compared to other professions (Clark et al., 2011). According to Clark (2015) the organization that I work for would be considered a moderately healthy workplace based on his healthy workplace inventory checklist. This assessment seems to match the general attitude of how the managers treat the employees and how upper management treats the managers. However, there are no questions to address how coworkers treat each other directly in relation to incivility.

Incivility in the Workplace

Incivility is rude or disruptive behaviors that can result in psychological or physiological distress (Griffin & Clark, 2014). Incivility is considered to be a one-on-one act that can include eye-rolling, making demeaning remarks, and sarcastic remarks (Griffin & Clark, 2014). Recently we had an issue of incivility that progressed into bullying. A registered nurse (RN) asked the nursing assistant (NA) to help get her patient’s vital signs. The NA told the RN that she was not supposed to get vital signs unless the RN was overwhelmed and since the unit only had nine patients and three RNs that the situation was not overwhelming. The NA then forwarded a screenshot of a previous text message conversation with the manager about what duties the NAs have while they are on the floor to the three RNs for clarification.

The RNs then got together and called the manager, on a Sunday, to inform her that the NA had refused to take a set of vital signs. The manager was obviously upset and had to call the unit to ask the NA why she would not take the vitals. She also sent out a mass email to the unit about what the expectations are for delegation and how she does not tolerate an employee who is insubordinate. While we only opened the hospital about three weeks ago the manager has set clear guidelines on what she expects for her employees, what is expected of the employees in respect to working together, and how to approach each other with more respect.

Even though my workplace is considered a HWE, this score of 86 out of 100 was based more on management treatment of employees. While this is important it is also important to note that 27% of Americans have suffered incivility at work and 21% have witnessed incivility happen in the workplace (Griffin & Clark, 2014). One instance of incivility towards someone else may not make someone’s personal score lower but the assessment should ask if you have experienced or witnessed any incivility or bullying in the workplace to truly determine a HWE assessment score.

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
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

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