The work environment directly impacts the nurse’s performance at work. According to Shin et al. (2023), job satisfaction directly influences the nurse’s turnover and improves patient outcomes and satisfaction. Various factors impact patient satisfaction, including issues at the workplace and working conditions; a negative work environment negatively impacts the nurses’ ability to fulfill their duties as many lose motivation to work. This further results in the nurse giving their work less attention, which presents a greater risk of mistakes and errors. Both interpersonal and professional relationships highly contribute to nurse satisfaction. Diversity plays a vital role in healthcare as it creates a stronger feeling of inclusion and community for healthcare workers, thus making the workplace feel safer and more enjoyable (Shin et al., 2023). The given scenario presents Tina, an RN from the Philippines who works in a medical-surgical unit. This project discusses the leadership improvement plan within the medical-surgical unit.
The Need for Team Member Respect, Value and Security
Nurses must have a set of values that align with their profession, according to Poorchangizi et al. (2019); some of these values include humanity, coherence, training, respect, and impartiality. Nurses develop these values during the education stage. In this stage, nurse instructors play a critical role as they ensure the development of values essential to nursing, which are later used in the work environment. The workplace culture has a strong influence on nurses. Based on the given scenario, the working group has absolutely no values. For instance, making Nurse Tina’s error public violated her reliability. In this case, when a team or member becomes reliable, communicating becomes difficult as the environment becomes tense and unhealthy. Psychological stability is also another vital aspect demonstrated in the scenario. This often affects job satisfaction and may cause the nurse to lose interest in working at the unit or facility. In addition, there should be tolerance, respect, and understanding within the team. A sense of value and respect in a facility allows the nurses to demonstrate confidence and ensures their security. Since Tina is from the Philippines, the organization needs to embrace a multicultural work environment. This allows members to respect the different views of others and understand that everyone’s opinion is equal and no one should be downshamed.
Safe and Caring Culture
A respectful and inclusive work environment enhances relationships between members, thus increasing the effectiveness of care and the outcomes of patients. Health organizations have policies in place to ensure there is no violence or bullying in the workplace. This allows organizations to attain the psychological stability of the nurses and other workers linked to patient care. When a nurse resigns or is replaced, the organization incurs extra expenses. This demonstrates the relationship between bullying and the loss of nurses in organizations. Therefore, healthcare organizations should install strict measures to avoid bullying or workplace violence. This would allow healthcare facilities to achieve a stable workforce that promotes positive patient outcomes. Studies show that the strategies for reducing workplace bullying include preventive measures, an effective mechanism for reporting violence, and transparent policies.
Team members should also get continuous education as this allows them to know the definition of violence in the workplace, the policies, and the personal and social consequences of workplace violence. Employees must have a deeper understanding of punitive measures and how to report any violence or bullying incident. The scenario is an excellent example of an environment that is unsafe and uncaring because it involves bullying. This can also be considered a toxic work environment since a fellow workmate bullied Tina, and because there were no punitive measures or proper reporting channels, she left the organization.
Leadership Role in Improving Team Member Support Within a Diverse Workforce.
In any healthcare organization, a diverse healthcare staff gives access to more perspectives, sparks creativity, enhances productivity, and improves the organization’s ability to solve complex problems. The US society is diverse and includes different generations, nationalities, cultures, sexual orientations, and religious beliefs. It is important to note that a diverse work environment can quickly spark conflict (Stanford, 2020). However, diversity can also be positive because it enriches and encourages new ideas. The most important characteristics of leaders in an inclusive and diverse work environment include flexibility and communication. Individuals from different cultural backgrounds have different communication skills, and the leader adapts to their styles and encourages assertive communication. Leaders must be attentive to discriminatory behavior and address them professionally. In a diverse environment, the leader should allow every member to develop and grow individually and always include every staff member in the organization’s activities.
Active Engagement and Support of a Healthy Environment
Based on the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), a healthy workplace environment enhances the quality of care and patient outcomes. It proposed six standards that denote a healthy work environment, including skilled communication, effective decision-making, proper staffing collaboration, authentic leadership, and meaningful recognition (Bradley, 2020). In addition, a healthy work environment is also characterized by respectful and cooperative relationships. In this case, leaders should ensure their leadership style is centered on people and their needs. Studies show that a healthy environment positively affects nurses’ emotional status, job satisfaction, psychological health, and retention. This environment also impacts the relationships between nurses and other staff members and increases their productivity and job satisfaction.
Furthermore, a healthy environment enhances patient outcomes, the overall quality of care, and customer satisfaction. Based on the scenario, having a healthy environment will reduce the rate of errors and accidents during care provision, especially if there is no bullying or violence. This can only be achieved with proper leadership involvement as the leader must encourage a healthy environment as he identifies and solves any issues within the workplace, such as discrimination, conflicts, emotional exhaustion, and lack of communication (Bradley, 2020). The leader can also explore assertive communication, achieving a healthy environment.
Leadership Interventions that Should Have Occurred in the Case Scenario
The leader’s leadership style determines whether or not bullying will occur in the workplace. This demonstrates the need for leadership ethics, which is essential in promoting a bullying-free environment. The case scenario requires leadership interventions to promote a safe and healthy work environment. The first intervention is education about harassment, violence, and inappropriate behavior in the workplace. This involves educating the workers about bullying, what it is, ways of dealing with it, available resources, and the consequences of bullying others at work (Khuntia et al., 2022). The second intervention is to establish measures for reporting acts of harassment, including bullying at the workplace. This allows the staff to report the events or incidents promptly before severe consequences occur. The third intervention is to promote an all-inclusive and non-discriminatory workplace environment. This involves providing equal opportunities to all staff members regardless of their race, skin color, sex, and ethnic background (Khuntia et al., 2022). A diverse workforce is guaranteed to work smoothly if everyone feels included. Therefore, leaders must ensure they have an assertive and flexible leadership style that allows them to identify and resolve conflicts within a diverse environment.
Conclusion
This project analyses the scenario involving nurse Tina and the bullying perpetrated against her by her colleague. It highlights how to handle a diverse work environment and the importance of a healthy workplace. The project also demonstrates the importance of leadership in attaining an inclusive and safe work environment. The three proposed interventions that should have been applied in the scenario focus on safety, social inclusion, and a healthy workplace environment.
References
Bradley E. H. (2020). Diversity, Inclusive Leadership, and Health Outcomes. International journal of health policy and management, 9(7), 266–268. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2020.12
Khuntia, J., Ning, X., Cascio, W., & Stacey, R. (2022). Valuing Diversity and Inclusion in Health Care to Equip the Workforce: Survey Study and Pathway Analysis. JMIR formative research, 6(5), e34808. https://doi.org/10.2196/34808
Shin, S. H., Baek, O. J., & Lee, E. H. (2023). Effects of Nursing Work Environment, Need Satisfaction, and Depression on Turnover Intention in Korea. Healthcare, 11(12), 1698. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11121698
Stanford F. C. (2020). The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in the Healthcare Workforce. Journal of the National Medical Association, 112(3), 247–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnma.2020.03.014
Poorchangizi, B., Borhani, F., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., & Farokhzadian, J. (2019a). Professional values of nurses and nursing students: A comparative study. BMC Medical Education, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909- 019-1878-2
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