Communication and Relationship Building

Module 4: Communication and Relationship Building (Week-9)

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Marshall, E., & Broome, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

• Chapter 5, “Collaborative Leadership Contexts: Networks, Communication, Decision Making, and Motivation” (pp. 121–144)
• Chapter 9, “Creating and Shaping the Organizational Environment and Culture to Support Practice Excellence” (pp. 247–278)
• Chapter 10, “Building Cohesive and Effective Teams” (pp. 279–298)

Select at least ONE of the following:

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

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Clark, C. M. (2018). Combining cognitive rehearsal, simulation, and evidence-based scripting to address incivility. Nurse Educator. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

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

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

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Document: Work Environment Assessment Template (Word document)

Required Media

TEDx. (2017, April). Jody Hoffer Gittell: The power of a simple idea [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7nL5RC5kdE

Laureate Education (Producer). (2009a). Working with Groups and Teams [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Discussion: 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.

DISCUSSION MAIN

Quality management is the most significant driving force of a healthy work environment (Shirey, 2017). According to Clark (2018), as a professional, nurses have a moral responsibility to cultivate a courteous and wholesome occupational atmosphere to safeguard patient well-being. Decent work is based on the quality of work, which can be directly linked to the quality of associations in the workplace; in other words, good work is correlated to positive interpersonal developments (Di Fabio, & Gori).

The Healthy Workplace Inventory (HWI) is considered a psychometrically sound reliable tool to measure civility in the workplace (Clark, Sattler, & Barbosa-Leiker, 2018). I completed the HWI, and my results were a score of 26. I asked a colleague a few of the questions just to make sure that I was not being overly critical of exaggerating, and her responses were the same as mine. Morale among employees is nonexistent. In my department, there is an air of civility; however, it is just superficial. There is an undertone of constant criticism amongst the staff towards other members. It seems that each person considers their way the only way to go, and if you are not doing things their way, your methods are sub-par.

There was an incident between myself and another coworker. It was after hours, and we were finishing up a case. The surgical technician requested additional dressings and felt that my response was not quick enough for her. I asked her to be patient, and when I assessed the surgical dressing, I told her that the surgical wound was already sufficiently dressed. She responded unfavorably with some name-calling. I told her that she was being inappropriate and not to address me again. The next day I asked her into the locker room to discuss the situation. She apologized for the verbal incivility stating that she was tired, it was late, and that she was wrong to speak the way that she spoke. At some point, the interim nurse manager had come into the locker room and was listening in on the conversation. We were in the process of disagreeing on the amount of dressing that was being used and her wanting the supplies, that I did not feel were necessary right then, when the manager felt the need to interject her unsolicited opinion into the conversation.  I requested to have the discussion in the locker room to be away from the work area and to discuss our disagreement like adults. It is not the first time that myself and this coworker have had this type of discussion, and we were able to work it out. This manager is new to the equation and does not know the dynamics. The manager basically sided with the technician and said that we would make this an official discussion, which we were trying to avoid.

On the one hand, the nurse is taught that everything that happens in the O.R. is their responsibility, and on the other hand they say that the nurse has to let someone with no formal education, certifications or license to protect, make patient care decisions for your patient, and tell you how to perform your job. The O.R. technicians at this facility are not very respectful towards the nurses, and management is no better. This was not the case where I worked before. At the other hospital, the nurse was always in charge. Moreover, for the most part, the nurse and the technician worked as a team.

References

Clark, C. M. Sattler, V. P.., & Barbosa-Leiker, C. (2018). Development and Psychometric Testing of the Workplace Civility Index: A Reliable Tool for Measuring Civility in the Workplace. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 49(9), 400–406. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.3928/00220124-20180813-05

Clark, C. M., (2019). Combining Cognitive Rehearsal, Simulation, and Evidence-Based Scripting to Address Incivility. Nurse Educator, 44(2), 64–68. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563

Di Fabio, A., & Gori, A. (2016). Assessing Workplace Relational Civility (WRC) with a new multidimensional “mirror” measure. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 890.

Shirey, M. R. (2017). Leadership Practices for Healthy Work Environments. Nursing Management, 48(5), 42–50. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000515796.79720.e6

DISCUSSION RESPONSE

Great post,  Dianne. At my previous place of employment, the wrinkle in the unit was the charge nurse. She always seemed so bitter and unapproachable. She seemed to revel in everyone else’s misery. She was even disrespectful to some of the Dr.s’ and gave them a hard time. Her disposition was well known throughout the hospital because she was always so uncivil, even on the phone people were often offended. Incivility in the place of work is harmful to all those involved (Clark, 2019). At that hospital, the facility held an evaluation period where the staff was encouraged to participate in an online review of the hospital, the administration and your immediate managers, assistant managers and charge nurses. The process was completely anonymous. When the reviews were announced the charge nurse gave a tearful apology for her actions. She changed her ways and was very pleasant to everyone. This change did not last forever; however, she became more aware of actions and responses and had not entirely reverted to her old ways. I wish that we had an evaluation process to rate the people of authority in my current facility. We have a new interim manager, and employee morale has gone from bad to worse. She has been trying to prove herself capable and worthy of the position. She is trying to cover the manager, charge nurse, and now materials manager positions; because the previous one decided to retire, all at once. She plays a significant part as to why my current facility only rated a 26 on the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory assessment. Without quality management a healthy work environment is difficult to achieve (Shirey, 2017). Being a traveling nurse, you have the benefit of evaluating and giving feedback regularly, which is excellent. I’m sure that the employees benefit from your input.

References

Clark, C. M. (2019). Combining Cognitive Rehearsal, Simulation, and Evidence-Based Scripting to Address Incivility. Nurse Educator, 44(2), 64-68. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000000563.

Shirey, M. R. (2017). Leadership Practices for Healthy Work Environments. Nursing Management, 48(5), 42–50. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000515796.79720.e6

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.