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NR500 Assessment 5: Cultivating Healthful Environments
Introduction
The issue of incivility is prevalent in healthcare environments and can
... [Show More] lead to negative effects in terms of high employee turnover and poor service delivery (Kim, Park & Kim, 2013). Many workers are leaving their jobs due to uncivil behavior. Incivility can be a hindrance to teamwork. This essay provides the definition of incivility. It also discusses the importance of incivility to nursing, how it impacts individuals, microsystem work environments, and the nursing profession. Additionally, it presents a scenario of incivility in nursing practice, its impact on people involved and the work environment. Also, the paper provides strategies for cultivating a healthful environment, future approaches for creating a healthful workplace as a family nurse practitioner. In the end, the essay presents a conclusion and self-reflection on incivility.
Incivility defined
Incivility refers to deviant actions with ambiguous intent in a workplace geared towards damaging the cordial relationship between workers. Uncivil actions include disrespectful, rude and discourteous attitudes (Laschinger et al., 2013). The issue of incivility is prevalent in organizations and contributes to physiological or emotional distress for the individuals involved. If this issue is not addressed it can develop into a catastrophic behavior. Incivility victims experience various signs such as stress, anger, and anxiety. The majority of people know that their colleagues and managers are engaged in the uncivil behavior. Individuals that embrace incivility use hostile behavior to gain control of the target. Sadly, these individuals lack the necessary coping skills to relate with others.
Importance of Incivility
Incivility is an essential aspect of nursing because it helps to identify nurses with disruptive behaviors. As such, these behaviors can affect productivity, patients’ safety, and health outcomes. Moreover, this issue is important in nursing in terms of helping the nurse leaders
institute a code of conduct that not only encourages respect but also recognizes each staff differences. Research shows that incivility in the workplace has a significant impact on individuals (Laschinger et al., 2013). Incivility can directly affect individuals’ productivity, absenteeism, and morals. In particular, the productivity of a person is affected to the degree that individuals may not be ready to work with co-workers or their contribution to practice may decline. An individual can also become deliberately less dedicated and may not care about meeting the duties.
The issue of incivility has an influence on microsystem work environment. According to D'ambra & Andrews, (2014) incivility in work environments can cost the institutions significant expenses to hire and train new workers or even retain employees. Incivility can also decrease the productivity of workers, which may affect achieving workplace goals. In the nursing profession, incivility can lead to high rate of medical errors, failure to satisfy patients’ needs, negative outcomes and loss of competent staff (Kim, Park & Kim, 2013). Owing to the fact that the profession of nursing is a pressure-packed workplace, incivility of staff can lead to serious issues such as a threat to the safety of patients and quality of services.
Scenario of invincibility in Practice and strategies for creating a healthful environment
Incivility cases emerge in different forms in workplaces. As a new family nurse practitioner in a health unit, there was a co-worker who had been practicing for 5 years. After orientation, I heard her yelling at me that I needed to increase my pace. I was not only offended, but my self-esteem was adversely affected as well. In addition, this offensive action distracted me from caring for patients, which led to adverse healthcare outcomes. The action also affected my relationship with my co-workers. Besides, the work environment was also affected as the management was not alerted in a timely manner about the uncivil behavior. As a result, patient
safety and outcomes were affected. A few nurses had to leave the unit, an aspect that led to some shortage. On the contrary, the healthcare facility had to undertake significant investments as the organization was compelled to hire and train new nurses to meet the demand.
However, to combat cases of incivility in workplace environments, the organization should adopt necessary measures to cultivate a healthful environment, the management must lead by example (Wing, Regan & Spence Laschinger, 2015). Implicitly, the management should model civil actions by creating a culture of respect as well as civility. Furthermore, the management must be vigilant when interacting with workers, be it face to face or through email. Hereafter, setting a tone for institutional management can be important when it comes to cultivating a healthful workplace, where respect and decorum are espoused.
Another strategy is ensuring that workers’ practice respect during the recruitment phase. The recruiters should have necessary skills to express civility while setting the stage for such prospects. In the selection phase, recruiters can use references to find out previous uncivil actions and select individual attributes associated with respectful and civil actions. Once hired, on-job training can be used to discuss civility and interpersonal conduct. Training can also be used to put emphasis on the importance of civility in the workplace. During the training program, it should be stressed that healthful workplace environments can not only decrease workforce negative outcomes but also increase productivity (Wing, Regan & Spence Laschinger, 2015).
Training can also help to solve issues to do with stress management, non-disruptive approaches of venting out anger, and how to report violent behavior.
Strategies to implement for cultivating a healthful work environment as a family nurse practitioner
As a family nurse practitioner, I will use communication as a mean to an end. In this perspective, if a co-worker does a disrespectful action, I will have a conversation with them and persuade them to change approach and be courteous in everything, especially when dealing with other colleagues at work. This will lead to healthful environments since the intolerant colleagues will get the chance to understand my standpoint and change for better. I will also cultivate a healthful environment by participating in training. The training will give me the opportunity to enhance my skills and also create incivility awareness. This will help me translate policies into my routine practice.
Conclusion
Incivility is a widespread issue in the workplace, which has a negative bearing when it comes to high nurse turnover and poor healthcare outcomes. While incivility is a common disruptive behavior in the workplace, it can be prevented when the management leads by example, training programs and by encouraging decorum during recruitment. These strategies can help an organization to cultivate a healthful workplace. As a family nurse practitioner, I will participate in training programs and enhance my communication skills in readiness to cultivate a healthful work environment. Nurses should understand their workplace environment, this can give them the opportunity to know firsthand how they are treated or perceived. Incivility is real and should be prevented at all costs. I believe communication is also essential when it comes to giving instigators a chance to understand their viewpoint and work towards change, to ensure a healthful work environment. In the end, I will ensure my co-workers participate in training
programs that can assist them to gain the necessary awareness and skills that are then put into policies and everyday practice. [Show Less]