Assessing Work Environment in Healthcare and Strategies to Improve Interprofessional Teams

Part 1: Work Environment Assessment

Within the healthcare setting, the management of diagnosis and evaluation of the illness is crucial, which could further help in determining the appropriate treatment procedure to the problem. The application of Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory should assist in diagnosing the potential issues and problems, furthermore, ensure development of the treatment procedure that is the most effective for resolving the health issue or problem. Based on the analysis and review of the information and knowledge acquired from the Work Environment Assessment template, it has been found that work environment has been relatively healthy. It is measured in terms of the experiences acquired from everyday practices and also identify the issues, furthermore, contribute towards management of change effectively (Clark, 2015).

The results or outcomes surprised me to a major extent as I found that aggregate ranking has just been 67, which is very minimal considering the fact that analysis and interpretation were done correctly. As the evaluation was entirely based on the practical experiences from past and present, which show signs of a healthy work environment, still, here is necessity to discuss about the issues and challenges consistently. Thus, first and foremost, the aggregate ranking of 67 was quite surprising for me, which somehow did not justify the rating, as per the correct analysis and interpretation done for the assessment of the work environment. Another thing that was quite surprising has been the professional development areas. Though the organisation was not having sufficient scopes and opportunities to gain professional growth and development within the workplace (Bangwal & Tiwari, 2018). Due to this, I was also left out with limited options to gain professional growth and development, which enabled me to remain focused on the numbers that are needed to be acquired during the exam. Moreover, I was also left in a bit of surprise to know that while technological advancements are crucial for continuous change and evolvement. Staying at the same place for a high time period might hinder successful transition towards the growth phase and even diminish the progress within the professional or working environment (Lateef 2018).

The results of the assessment suggest that the work environment is quite healthy, though the company has been rated with a score of just 67 out of 100 marks. The Workplace inventory health was mainly measured by focusing on the everyday experiences and also on the basis of allocation of tasks, performance and the working capital possessed by the organisation. To some extent, it could be agreed upon, considering the fact that the organisation has experienced high turnover of employees and also some related aspects of customers’ services support (Aliyu & Nyadzayo, 2018). The transactional leadership is considered to be a more viable option, which could strengthen the relationship with employees, allow employers and managers to take care of their needs, health and wellbeing. The rewards and recognition along with other benefits could ensure high level of motivation, thus, ensure that lack of civility, unhealthy working environment and poor level of trust, all these issues are resolved within quick time.

Part 2: Reviewing the Literature

The theory or concept relating to the source article that has been selected here represents the management of conversations, which promotes a civil workplace and at the same time, ensures identification of various standards that are established, to sustain a healthy working environment. According to Clark (2015), the major standards that are required to establish and sustain a healthy work environment include the skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision making, appropriate staffing process, meaningful recognition and also the authentic leadership behaviours. Considering the fact that for supporting the creation of a civilized workplace and to promote good health and wellbeing of the employees, there is need to manage their behaviours by taking care of their needs and preferences, furthermore, maintain delivery of effective quality healthcare services, furthermore, optimise the patient related outcomes. Vestergaard and Nørgaard, (2018) argues that the patient centred care procedure could be a great way to treat the individual with care, respect, dignity, fairness and also allow them to speak out, share their respective thoughts, ideas and consent, as per the healthcare rights of individuals. This could help in delivering treatment interventions that meet the standards of the organisation and also align with the healthcare rights of individuals, thus, gain their consent to ensure smooth transition towards patient health and wellbeing (Corin, 2019).

The concept is related to the Work environment assessment, where the rating has been received as 67, which represent the fact that, there is need to promote employee health and wellbeing, which is crucial for maintaining civility within the workplace as well as reduce chance of patient safety risks to a large extent. Employees’ turnover rate and lack of morale and motivation could be the major reasons, which shows compromise on the employee wellbeing thus, they also are reluctant to commit fully towards the patients. Due to this, McManus and Naughton, (2020) argued that not only patients were abandoned, not taken care of properly, the vital signs were not identified, along with falsification of patient records, which tend to create negative image and reputation of the organisation and also the caregivers.

The organization could apply the theory or concept of person-centred approach to establish certain standards and the most important thing would be to keep the morale of the employees higher and motivation at its peak. The major important is to communicate, which must be done between the employees of the organisation and also between the employees and the patients. This tends to create behavioural changes, thus, facilitate positive intent and mental state towards doing something the right way (Gawande et al., 2019). The transactional leadership could be beneficial for strengthening relationship with the care workers and allow them to share their individual ideas, thoughts and opinions, thus, facilitate decision making process and conflict resolution too. Creation of a safe zone for managing open discussions between the care givers, patients and their family members could mitigate patient risks and come to a great solution of managing patient centred care approach. The DESC model, according to Clark (2015) is of significance, in terms of making the organization well equipped, through management of training sessions, thus, improve communication, negotiate about conflicts, solve problems and ensure higher patient safety too.

Part 3: Evidence-Based Strategies to Create High-Performance Interprofessional Teams

To address the shortcomings or the issues, identified in the Work environment assessment, the major recommendations are as follows:

From TEDx, (2017), it is recommended to make some desirable changes such as changes in leadership style, i.e., the transactional leadership style or approach could be beneficial for managing effective communication and at the same time, focus on doing things the right way, collaboratively. This should create shift in attitudes and behaviours of the employees and also keep them encouraged and motivated towards performing to their potential and improve patient centred outcomes. Also, it promotes establishment of a civil and collaborative culture, which allow everyone to feel secure, while prioritizing on the major purpose of providing a safe and effective patient care environment (Rolland et al., 2021).

It is also recommended to mitigate the actual level of stress and depression among individuals, thus, mitigate work overload while even contribute to the formation of knowledge and skills among employees. Just as collaborative environment with good leadership support is essential. It is also essential to adopt the conceptual model or framework of Clark, thus, promote nursing education and person-centred approaches, which could improve nursing education as well as strengthen the knowledge and skills among employees largely too (Smith et al., 2018).

Considering the analysis outcomes derived from the Work Environment Assessment, there are few strategies that are recommended for implementation. It is aimed at improving the healthcare practices, while constantly focus on improving the health and wellbeing of the employees working there (Sifaki-Pistolla et al., 2020). To improve the wellness rating, as per the workforce assessment, which have scopes of development, employees must be taken care of, supported, provided with necessary rewards and benefits, thus, ensure bringing some change in policies and principles within the workplace. This could keep them aware of the changes and gradually acquire the interest to perform efficiently with proper leadership support that is always expected for the same (Broome & Marshall, 2021). Also, the acquisitions of their ideas, thoughts and opinions could bolster the process of decision making, while constantly strive towards making things done together, with efficiency and reliability.

Also, strategy to promote a positive organisational culture would be crucial for engaging nurse managers and leaders, thus, keep them acknowledged and aware about the potential areas that require necessary changes and improvements (Lyman et al., 2021). This acknowledgment could enhance cultural diversity, averting discrimination, conflicts, and harassments. Apart from this, it could enable formation of a working environment, where everyone feels secure, confident, and morale high and high level of motivation to perform optimally, thus, instil a culture of civility and maintain consistency in patient outcomes within the healthcare practice and work environment.

References 

Aliyu, O. A., & Nyadzayo, M. W. (2018). Reducing employee turnover intention: A customer relationship management perspective. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(3), 241-257. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0965254X.2016.1195864]
Bangwal, D., & Tiwari, P. (2018). Workplace environment, employee satisfaction and intent to stay. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. [https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCHM-04-2017-0230/full/html]

Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

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

Corin, A. (2019). Being well and wellbeing: better understanding of patient priorities in primary care. Journal of primary health care, 11(2), 89-95. [https://doi.org/10.1071/HC18088]

Gawande, R., To, M. N., Pine, E., Griswold, T., Creedon, T. B., Brunel, A., ... & Schuman-Olivier, Z. (2019). Mindfulness training enhances self-regulation and facilitates health behavior change for primary care patients: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of general internal medicine, 34(2), 293-302. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-018-4739-5]

Lateef, F., 2018. Inter-Professional Education, Inter-Professional Practice and Team Science: Learning Together; Working Together. Education in Medicine Journal, 10(4). [http://eduimed.usm.my/EIMJ20181004/EIMJ20181004_08.pdf]

Lyman, B., Biddulph, M. E., Hopper, V. G., Horton, M. K., Mendon, C. R., Thorum, K. C., & Smith, E. L. (2021). Creating a Work Environment Conducive to Organizational Learning. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 52(6), 281-285. [https://journals.healio.com/doi/abs/10.3928/00220124-20210514-07]

McManus, D., & Naughton, B. D. (2020). A systematic review of substandard, falsified, unlicensed and unregistered medicine sampling studies: a focus on context, prevalence, and quality. BMJ global health, 5(8), e002393. [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/8/e002393.abstract]

Rolland, B., Burnside, E. S., Voils, C. I., Shah, M. N., & Brasier, A. R. (2021). Enhancing reproducibility using interprofessional team best practices. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 5(1). [https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2020.512]

Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Melidoniotis, E., Dey, N., & Chatzea, V. E. (2020). How trust affects performance of interprofessional health-care teams. Journal of interprofessional care, 34(2), 218-224. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13561820.2019.1631763]

Smith, T., Fowler-Davis, S., Nancarrow, S., Ariss, S. M. B., & Enderby, P. (2018). Leadership in interprofessional health and social care teams: a literature review. Leadership in Health Services. [https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/LHS-06-2016-0026/full/html]

TEDx. (2017, April). Jody Hoffer Gittell: The power of a simple idea [Video file]. Retrieved 28^th Jan 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7nL5RC5kdE

Vestergaard, E., & Nørgaard, B. (2018). Interprofessional collaboration: An exploration of possible prerequisites for successful implementation. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 32(2), 185-195. [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13561820.2017.1363725]