Standards For Sustaining A Healthy Work Environment

Mulloy, D. F., & Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient safety & quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2678/

The nurse manager in today’s health care has a solid role in providing a healthy working environment. Healthy working environment is the basis for safe and better patient outcomes. Healthy working environment in a unit depends on the inspiration, motivation and support from the nurse manager and the management in all the ways. So as a nurse manager in a unit, the change I wish to initiate is the safe staffing patterns. Safe staffing patterns are always important for safe working environments to deliver excellent patient care. Staffing and scheduling means providing an adequate staff mix to meet the needs of the patients (Grohar-Murray & Langan, 2011). Nurse manager should know how to schedule and skill mix to provide adequate

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

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, state that there are several factors that lead to successful, healthy work environments. “The ingredients for success — skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition and authentic leadership” (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2016, para. 4). However, I have to disagree to the idea that the nurses’ work environments are totally at blame. What are the main causes of unhealthy work environments? There are several elements that lead to unhealthy work environments such as job stressors, different work environment perceptions, and unique employee characteristics.

Purpose: The purpose of this speech is to inform my audience about the importance of safe nurse staffing that can help improve patient satisfaction, decrease patient complications, reduce nurse fatigue, improve nurse retention, decrease patient mortality, and reduce medical and medication error.

Mandating safe staffing levels for registered nurses in acute care settings has been an important topic of discussion for many years. As the demand for registered nurses continues to rise, so does the clinical demands on the nurses currently working. If there are no specific policies in place that mandate safe and appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios for all acute care facilities, registered nurses (RNs) may be required to take on even more patients than the already high numbers currently given to many of them. Inadequate RN staffing has the potential to cause increases in adverse patient events (American Nurses Association (ANA), The registered nurse safe staffing act, 2015) as well as an increase in nurse injury (Musick, Trotto, & Morrison,

The research studies reviewed all share a common theme that staffing and patient care make a safe care environment. The patient safety conditions all are enhanced by adequate staffing and nurse retention. Nursing turnover leads to reduced staffing and affects the patient’s outcomes and overall satisfaction. The point of agreement is that nurse staffing and the environment has a positive effect on patient safety, outcomes, and satisfaction.

Workplace safety is a major issue faced by nurses in healthcare settings. It is said that, hospitals are hazardous workplaces; unsafe workplaces are dangerous for the patients too. Today, many nurses are suffering hospital violence, heavy workloads causing serious injuries, contracting diseases caused by exposures to certain diseases, antineoplastics, and certain health care toxins, that workers bring home to their families. This in turn leads to acute staff shortages. Ample supply of nurses is very important in providing safe and timely care to the patient population. Maintaining a healthy workplace will enable the healthcare systems to control costs associated with healthcare management as well as enhancing the productivity of nurses in health care. It is estimated that creating a healthy environment in the workplace not only benefit nurses, but also benefits patients and other members of the health care team. This report explains some of the safety issues existing in health care, which directly or indirectly affects nurses as well as the health of the Canadian population.

I found your paper informative since it is the topic of my health policy paper for this course. I know all too well how it is to work in unsafe staffing environments. Doing some research I came across an association that is working toward establishing safe staffing laws. The National Nurses United (2015), the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in U.S. history, has a nationwide campaign in support of safe staffing for RNs and patients. They currently have two national safe patient ratio bills including one in Senate (S. 864) and one in the House (HR 1602).

To improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of patient care, applying research and evidence-based practice is necessary. In the Institute of Medicine’s report, Keeping Patient Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses, there is an emphasis on adequate nurse staffing (Hickey & Brosnan, 2012). Therefore, the quality improvement initiative is to focus on closing the gap between the core staffing and actual staffing in a six-week schedule.

Errors pervade in our lives whether it is our home, in our workplace, or in our society. The effects of healthcare errors have impacted all our lives either directly or indirectly. Patient safety and quality care are at the core of healthcare system which strongly depends upon nurses. “To achieve goals in patient safety and quality, thereby improve healthcare, nurses must assume the leadership role. Nurses need to ensure that they and other healthcare providers center healthcare on patients and their families. Even though the quality and safety of healthcare is heavily influenced by the complex nature

The delivery of healthcare has evolved and changed over the years and with the advances in science and technology, the ability to provide safe, quality care to all patients has been impacted by the changes. With the rising healthcare costs and decrease in reimbursement for care provided, organizations must look for ways of cost containment to maintain viability for the future. Fabre (2005) noted that administrators are struggling to maintain financial stability and retain competent nurses during these difficult

In today’s health care system, “quality” and “safety” are one in the same when it comes to patient care. As Florence Nightingale described our profession long ago, it takes work and vigilance to ensure we are doing the best we can to care for our patients. (Mitchell, 2008)

Hello, my name is Alyssa McLaughlin and I am a registered nurse at Essentia Health in Duluth. MN and have been for the past year. Today I am here to talk about staffing in the workplace this topic is one that is constantly on minds of those who work in acute care, I want you to think about your loved ones, they come to the hospital, are admitted to a nurse with an unsafe staffing assignment. Your loved one would be at increased risks including, infection, falls, injuries, medical errors, and lastly possible death. As a nurse we are responsible to ensure “quality patient care is provided and outcomes are met” (Finkelman, 2016, p.232), but if this is not an option your loved ones and our patients will be the ones encountering an unwanted and

A significant finding in health care that Emanuel et al. (2015) gave emphasis to relates to the acknowledgement that hospitals are not necessarily safe places for healing. Rather, they pose significant risk of patient harm. Such findings have prompted attention to be given to patient safety. However, even with the increasing recognition of patient safety, the implementation of policies and practices linked to patient safety have proved challenging (Emanuel et al., 2015). A view that Emanuel et al. (2015) advanced is that it is possible to reduce errors by redesigning processes and systems through human factor principles. With this in mind, nursing staffing has become an area of interest in promoting patient safety.