Workplace Environment Assessment
Pamella Brown
, Walden University
NURSING 6053, Section 01, Interprofessional Organizational and System Leadership
Sandra Siedlecki
May 02, 2021
Work Environment Assessment
A work environment is deemed a healthy work environment when it empowers, satisfies, and is safe for its workers (American Nurses Association, 2017). Regular assessments of organizational health are imperative to ensure healthy work environments. This plays a significant role in aiding leaders in measuring their institutions’ general performance and evaluating and identifying specific areas that should be improved. Leaders’ approach to managing issues in the organization influences the culture of the organization. A work environment affects the behavior of the nurses. This paper will discuss the assessment of a work environment and analyze the results from the findings from the research.
Part 1: Assessment Results.
The score of the organization based on the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory is 50. That suggests that the institution hardly reflects a healthy environment. The undesirable scores are from the nurses who feel they are being overworked since they are few compared to the workload they are tasked to attend to. The nurses are understaffed because some are sick leaves and offs because they tested positive for the pandemic, COVID-19, or presented signs and symptoms of the same infectious disease. The remaining nurses have an increased stress level due to the heavy workload they are tasked to cover. The leadership of this institution is yet to provide solutions or hold discussions on the challenges the nurses are facing. In addition, there are limited resources to aid the nurses during difficult times.
Conversely, the results showed that these nurses, who had low self-esteem and were also disappointed, have strong teamwork, trust each other, and appear to share a shared vision and mission. Another crucial finding was that the institution’s leadership was ignorant of the nurses’ challenges. They do not show any remorse for the employees and do not care about their welfare as well. The leaders do not hold meetings to listen to the nurses nor address their concerns or any form of assistance. It was evident that this organization does not assess the organizational traditions regularly. For the past years, working in this institution, the leadership has no plans to enhance its corporate health.
The level of civility at my organization is fair. Most of the workers in the institution are disciplined, and they perform their tasks with very high integrity. There is peaceful coexistence among the employees because they treat each other with enough respect and trust. These employees communicate their suggestions, concerns, grievances, and opinions freely without being suppressed or forced. In general, the mood at this workplace is good and the relationship among the employees. Everything about the organization can be perfect except for the leader’s lack of compassion for the nurses experiencing challenges while working. This has caused a slight instability in the institution, and the mood could change if the situation is not addressed.
Part 2: Literature Reviews
Clark et al. (2011), in the article provided, introduce a vital idea that is in sync with the work environment of my organization. The critical state of my work discussed above corresponds with the model in the article. The stress levels of the nurses are increasing each day the leadership neglects their concerns. The institution is ignorant about the whole situation. The model by Clark et al. (2011) explains that with increased stress, “avoided, poorly managed or missed” encounter causes the institution to enter a risky stage where it is likely to collapse and incivility alleged to be practiced. This leads to the adoption of the “culture of incivility” in the organization. According to the model in the article, lines, spirals, arrow directions presented in the diagram show that the organization leader has many chances to mediate and stop the achievement of the culture of incivility in the institution. It is prudent for the leader to act fast and address this issue because the nurses’ stress is increasing daily, which creates opportunities for establishing the culture of incivility.
The “conceptual model for fostering civility in nursing education,” according to Clark et al. (2011), is used in nursing practices. The midpoint where extreme levels of stress meet with high awareness is represented at the model’s center. This leads to a poor relationship between employees, volatility in the , increased workloads, unclear roles, limited knowledge in conflict resolution, and power imbalance. The model suggests that uncivil behaviors are likely to be witnessed when the stress is too much to bear. Incivility is most likely the result because uncivil behaviors stress can propel the achievement of this state of incivility from the model. On the left side of the model, the spiral waves of incivility are increased because actions like chances, encounters, and remedies to address the conflict and challenges are neglected, ignored, or poorly managed. The model’s right side shows how addressing the challenges and resolving the disputes plays a major role in reinstating and maintaining civility in the work environment.
The leaders prevent or reduce stress through their communication skills to establish civility useful in academics and practice (Clark, 2015). The article states that implementing the DESC model and cognitive rehearsal (CR) can effectively resolve some incidents of incivility. This model, DESC, applies four strategies of resolving incivility in an environment. The four strategies are; describe the specific situation, Express your concern, State other alternatives, and Consequences state (Clark, 2015). The CR model comprises five vital strategies that are purposed for the encounter. Using evidence-based approaches, uncivil debriefing cases, pre-briefing, and prior learning, these strategies use thoughtful approaches to repeat simulated patients and identify and describe uncivil scenarios for simulation (Clark, 2019). The leader in my organization can avoid ignorance and address the problem in the institution. She can use the theories of these two models and implement the strategies to reduce the nurses’ stress and prevent the occurrence of incivility. For civility to prevail in the institution, the leader should establish a good communication channel with the employees, listen to their concerns, and address these pleas using proper strategies to reduce the stress levels of these . Moreover, this will rebuild the relationship between the nurses and the leader.
Part 3: Evidence-based Strategies
There are numerous strategies and methods to address stress (Clark et al., 2011). The systems are effective if they are implemented in the right way and manner. Most of the strategies discussed by Clark et al. (2011) were derived from research they conducted by interviewing nurse managers and nurse executives. The findings from their study are valuable and relevant to the particular case at the organization where I work. In the institutions, the nurses’ stress levels have elevated because they are overwhelmed with many tasks. There is a shortage of nurses and an increase in workload while the leader is ignorant to address the situation. One of the nurses working in the institution sent a message to the organization’s leaders via email. Still, her message was registering her complaint, a discriminative response she received when she asked for a vacation. The management did not consider her request. Many disappointed employees have received this kind of treatment in the past, but only one of them has made the bold step of presenting her complaint. The leader has kept her silent as she has not addressed the issue. This silence will worsen the current of overwhelmed nurses who will feel disrespected by the leader. The best approach I can recommend is that should set up a joint meeting immediately. In this meeting, the leader should exercise her leadership skills, particularly conflict resolution and communication skills. The nurses will get an opportunity to present their issues and opinions and suggestions on how to address their concerns. The leader should show some effort in addressing their problems as well. Another recommendation the leader can use is positive role-modeling and advocating and implementing positive behavior. These strategies will reduce the nurses’ stress levels and create a safe environment at the workplace.
Upon completion of environment assessment at the organization where I work, I discovered that the employees have a joint mission and vision. In addition to this, they treat each other with respect and trust. This interpersonal relationship among the employees is the strength and the force that gives them the will to perform their duties and responsibilities even in their stressful mood. Examples of strategies used to encourage successful practices in the institution are; creating continuous education on conflict resolution, providing codes of conduct to be adhered to, respectful communication, practicing acceptable behaviors, and problem-solving. These approaches are essential to promote and maintain civility in the organization. This organization can attain a standard level of courtesy if the nurses can personally and effectively comprehend the institution’s policies and own the actions they do and their behaviors. The nurses will be proud of their behaviors because they are equipped with enough knowledge on problem-solving, respectful communication, and conflict resolution.
Conclusion
The results from the work environment at my place of work clearly stated the problem the employees are experiencing. There is a shortage of personnel to carry out the heavy workload at the institution. The leader in the institution, who has been ignorant all this time, has to identify these areas where the challenges arise and address these cases to improve and maintain civility and organizational health. It is evident from the study that leaders in an organization play a significant role in establishing a healthy work environment at the institution for all employees and giving support.
References
Clark,C.M.(2015).Conversationstoinspireandpromoteamorecivilworkplace. AmericanNurseToday,10(11),18–23.
Clark,C.M.(2018).Combiningcognitiverehearsal,simulation,andevidence-basedscriptingtoaddressincivility.NurseEducator.
Clark,C.M.,Olender,L.,Cardoni,C.,&Kenski,D.(2011).Fosteringcivilityinnursing educationandpractice:Nurseleaderperspectives.JournalofNursingAdministration,41(7/8),324–330
Hess, J. D., &Bacigalupo, A. C. (2014). Enhancing management problem-solving processes through the application of emotional intelligence skills. Journal of Management, 2(3), 1-17.
Kroth, M., Boverie, P., &Zondlo, J. (2007). What Managers Do to Create Healthy Work Environments. Journal of Adult Education, 36(2), 1-12.
