NURS 6053 Discuss Workplace Environment Assessment
NURS 6053 Discuss 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.
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.
By Day 3 of Week 7
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.
By Day 6 of Week 7
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by sharing ideas for how shortcomings discovered in their evaluations and/or their examples of incivility could have been managed more effectively.
Submission and Grading Information
Results of the Clark Health Workplace Inventory concluded that the organization I am employed with is a moderately healthy
workplace (Clark, 2015). I am surprised that the results fell in the category they did, I expected a lower score. The reasoning behind
the score I expected was because of the current pandemic. Employees are leaving for higher paying jobs and many have been
unhappy with the stress caused by the pandemic. However, the employees of the organization share the same vision to improve
the lives of the community and we have leaders that are open to listening to our concerns, maintaining a civil work environment. I
was also surprised by the emphasis by the assessment regarding employee self-care and teamwork. Even during the pandemic, our
organization as encouraged self-care giving quiet rooms with massage chairs and our manager has been available even on
weekends and late at night to ensure the unit’s needs are being met. During the stress and chaos of the pandemic, I moved to the
intensive care unit. I was met by a unit that was constantly full of high acuity patients than normal even for the ICU. However, I
found that the team worked well together and communicated effectively presenting a work environment that was civil and healthy
and I am proud to be apart of .
The main idea that I had regarding the results was that the organization runs smoothly because of the shared mission, values
NURS 6053 Discuss Workplace Environment Assessment
and goals of the organization. Christus Good Shepherd’s mission is to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ with core values of
dignity, integrity, excellence, compassion, and stewardship. The vision of Christus Health is to be a leader and advocate in the
creation of innovative health and wellness solutions to improve the lives of the individuals of the community so that all may
experience the healing love of Jesus Christ (Christus Health, 2021). However, as shown by the results of the assessment not falling
in the top category, the current pandemic has put a strain on certain aspects including competitive pay and tension in everyday
work.
One instance where I have felt that I had an uncivil encounter was when I was in the ICU and one of the physicians started yelling
orders at me during a stressful situation and griping in front of the patient that it was late in the day to be inserting lines and such.
Clark (2015) states that the most effective way to stop incivility is to address it when it occurs. However, this takes practice and
requires effective communication and competent dialogue. At the time, I was unable to address the physician outside of the
patient’s room, however I have a wonderful team that did address it with the doctor. The team member gently spoke with the
physician in the appropriate environment and reminded him that we are all exhausted, but that appropriate communication is
essential to decrease work stress between staff and provide safe and effective patient care. Working under conditions of civil
communication, promotes role performance of team members (Liu, et. al., 2020). Even under stressful working conditions, it is
important for each team member to promote a civil working environment to support optimum work performance of each team
member.
References
Christus Health (2021). Christus Health: Our vision, mission, and values. Retrieved from https://www.christushealth.org/about/our-
mission-values-and-vision
Clark, C.M. (2015). Conversations to inspire and promote a more civil workplace. American Nurse Today, 10(11), 18-23. Retrieved
from .
Liu, Y., Vashdi, D. R., Cross, T., Bamberger, P., & Erez, A. (2020). Exploring the puzzle of civility: Whether and when team civil
communication influences team members’ role performance. Human Relations, 73(2), 215–241. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/0018726719830164
