Nursing Work Environment

AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments comprise skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision-making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition and authentic leadership (AACN, 2005). These standards are in line with the work life factors identified by Lake (2002) as characteristics of effective professional nursing practice environments (effective nursing leadership, staff participation in organizational affairs, adequate staffing for quality care, support for a nursing model of patient care, and effective nurse/physician relationships) that play an important role in the quality of nurses’ working lives and patient safety (Laschinger & Leiter, 2006). Establishing and sustaining healthy work

Patients want and expect to receive high quality care. Nurses want to provide the best care possible to their patients and like everybody else; want a pleasing job environment. Hospitals, on the other hand, are expected to provide a safe environment to patients, have enough nursing staff and remain profitable (Keller, Dulle, Kwiecinski, Altimier & Owens, 2013). The ultimate goal is to improve quality of care and patient safety across the United States; therefore, all the different interests of these major stakeholders should be taken into

The last case in which devious females make a travesty of the nature of masculinity by correlating it with violence who consequently ruin men involves Lady Macbeth and her dishonourable manipulation of her own husband. When Lady Macbeth appears near the onset of the play, she immediately introduces the theme concerning manhood and how it is associated with villainy. This notion is made clear when she declares, “Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here / And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / Of direst cruelty!” (1.5.43–46). Evidently, Lady Macbeth blatantly equates masculinity with wickedness, as she desires to become less of a woman and more of a man in order to appropriately reflect her immoral impulses;

1876, he was famed for his "Killing of Yellow Hand". Also during this time, in

Maintaining a healthy work environment is important for the overall health of nurses, and for the

The Nurse Journal wrote about a study that evaluated the workflow process amongst RN’s, LPN’s and support staff. They changed the way particular clinics were doing things to see if it had any impact. They would re-evaluate the clinic in 6 months. During this time, the team members roles were changed, daily goal sheets were implemented, unit huddles were used for better communication. . Staff members need a standardized form of communication. Based on the Nurse Journals research he reason that team members were not happy in their workplace was because of these five dysfunctions: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. The significance of the research provided real-life

The national nursing shortage is predicted to continue to rise to levels that have not been seen since the 1960’s (Fasoli, 2010). Managers must create an environment that is conducive to employees. The leader needs to promote organizational commitment and retain employees by promoting a positive culture on the unit. Nurses want an environment where they can provide high-quality care to patients and leaders must help facilitate and maintain this environment. Employees also want to feel like their opinions matter to the manager, and they have a say in the future of the unit. Employees do not want to feel like they are not important, or their voices are not being heard.

However, nurses encounter various problems that hinder them from adapting to changes in the health sector and from performing their duties properly. Therefore, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Healthy Work Environments are important for the overall health of nurses, for successful nurse recruitment and retention, and for the quality and safety of patient care.

Workload was described to be heavy, stressful, increase in intensity and overtime hours. As a result 25.8% consider resigning, 20.2% consider retiring and 25.6% consider leaving profession. Another problem that was observed at individual level was poor commitment to care. One of the factors that often limited nurses to provide therapeutic care was the change in nurse to patient ratio. As nurses assignments increase with the increase in the number of patients (i.e. 1 nurse to 6-8 patients) the quality of care provided decreases. Nurses’ ability to maintain safe environment became challenging. As part of caring, nurses also showed decreased amount of time spent with their patient. This eventually led to nurses being less satisfied with their current job. Self – efficacy was often low. Nurses felt that they did not have enough knowledge and skills required for professional practice (Newhouse, Hoffman, & Hairston, 2007). This often led into stressful transition and the ability to care for a patient even harder. New graduate nurses often had difficulty maintaining leadership role. They often felt that they did not have the ability to self advocate and raise their voice to be heard by others. They often feared that they would be over heard and that no one would listen to them (Mooney, 2007).

Due to the ever changing health care system and the reduction of resources, nursing demands are greater which has led to work related stress and ultimately nursing burnout. Nursing burnout has had a significant impact on nurses not only personally, but professionally in addition to impacting the delivery of quality care. Sadly, "we are facing an unprecedented crisis in the profession of nursing; many would be (and should be) nurses are choosing other careers, many wonderful nurses are leaving nursing, and many of the nurses who are staying in the profession are not happy" ( Todaro-Franceshi, n.d., para 3). As a nursing leader, the first step is recognizing that your staff may be potentially suffering from burnout and act upon it immediately, thereby, preventing job dissatisfaction and burnout. Literature continues to reveal that care providers, especially nurses and physicians struggle with this pervasive issue "which impacts their ability to relate to patients and focus on work in a way that avoids medical errors" ( cited by Rousell, 2016, Shandafelt et al., 2012, p. 51). The strategies in creating a positive work environment for nurses would be the

The purpose and problem statements are relevant to nursing because a poor work environment can lead to various issues such as: burnout, job disconnect, emotional and physical exhaustion, patient dissatisfaction and poor patient outcomes (Lang et al., 2012, p. 275). This is significant because they want to learn how to improve the environment to avoid nursing burnout and fatigue.

There are many significant reason why there have been numerous issues or complaints in the field of nursing over the past several years. The issue that has been more common over the years is what I would considered to be the most important issue that nurses have to put up with on a regular bases is what effects does the working environment have on nurses that work in the environment they either have to conform to or find a way to put a stop to the issues the working environment has caused. There are positive and negative aspects that effect the working environment in the nursing field, because of the many things that coincide with what goes on in the working environment that is not seen by non-staff members. Among these complaints have been

Barry Hill (2017) performed studies related to the quality of care that patients receive and what factors are associated with those perceptions. One area that was noted to be of importance and directly related to quality of care provided to patients is staff dissatisfaction and burnout. This study also found that longer shifts contributed to increased amounts of emotional exhaustion leading to decreased quality of care for patients. Addressing staffing needs early and intervening can decrease the amount of nurse burnout and dissatisfaction that is often seen. This study has shown that hiring additional competent nurses reduces medication errors, falls, infections, wounds, and decreases hospital litigation costs, while improving staff morale, patient experience and care, and cost-effectiveness for the hospital.

There is growing evidence that nurses’ experience deteriorating work conditions, with increasingly unsupportive work environments, non-family-friendly working hours and increased stress. The supervisor-nurse relationship is often the ‘buffer’ between organizational demands and professional workplace expectations. Notably, effective supervisor-nurse relationships predict high organizational commitment and wellbeing and retention. Thus, the quality of workplace relationships, especially those with supervisors, plus perceived organizational and colleague support, are argued to anchor nurses to a particular hospital and support them to stay nursing. Workplace relationships also influence nurses’ engagement; important to healthcare managers because engagement captures emotional and intellectual involvement, producing nurses who embrace their work tasks (Brunetto et al., 2013).