ASSIGNMENT WORK ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT PAPER

Summary of Results - Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory

The results of my organization, where I work according to the Clark Health Workplace Inventory, is a score of 51, which indicates that the workplace is unhealthy. The organization had a poor performance in areas including the level of trust, active engagement of the organization members and respect and fairness in the treatment of employees. The organization performed good in areas including attraction and retention of employees, career advancement and compensation, diversification of ideas, teamwork, employee’s wellness, communication and shared vision, although the performance was not excellent. According to the assessment of my workplace, no category scores the highest points of five, the majority scored four points, a few scored three points, and some scored two points. The average score is at three points.

Identify two things that surprised you about the results. Also identify one idea that you believed prior to conducting the Assessment that was confirmed.

The unhealthy condition of my workplace indicated by a score of 51 points is surprising to me. I have been working within the same workplace for the past seven years, and the environment has been comfortable and conducive to me. The score of 51 is just an average score from the highest score of 100, which is so surprising because all the employees have never noted how unhealthy the work environment is looking like. Lack of respect and trust among the employees and inadequate engagement of the employees was surprising to me as well. Throughout my employment in the same workplace, I have had a peaceful shift because I always do not interact with several people. After reflecting on the scores, there is limited room for change within the workplace unless the management tries to involve the employees in shared decisions and active engagement of employees in the organization.

Lack of respect and unfair treatment of the employees is one idea I believed existed in the workplace before conducting the assessment. The idea was confirmed to be unhealthy when the assessment was conducted. For example, there is always the unfair treatment of employees when settling conflicts between the employees and the management. The management tends to ignore several issues when handling conflicts, and they expect that the same conflicting parties should work collaboratively and produce excellent results in the organization.

What do the results of the Assessment suggest about the health and civility of your workplace?

Workplace incivility, according to Clark, (2015), results in poor patient outcome, medical errors, job dissatisfaction, burnout, stress, fatigue, increased cost of care and ineffective communication among the health professionals and the patients. A healthy work environment portrays elements include authentic leadership, teamwork, effective communication, shared decision-making, active engagement of employees and safe staffing levels. The scores from the assessment indicate that my workplace is uncivil because of the average performance with most of the elements scoring two points. It is easy to note that there is a high level of job dissatisfaction because of the increased number of turnovers in the workplace. The organization has been working hard to ensure the accomplishment of the organization goals without considering correcting the issues affecting the employees. The organization is also faced with challenges related to the staffing ration because the critical care unit and the emergency have a low nurse to patient ratio, and the managers seem to be reluctant to correct the issues. According to Bangwal & Tiwari (2019), inadequate staffing leads to overworking the employees, burnout, fatigue and further exacerbate nursing turnover.

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.

Unprofessional behaviour within the healthcare environment that causes incivility creates a stressful condition, which further influences the safety of the patient. Cognitive rehearsal theory helps in preparing employees to handle threats caused by incivility. Learning the approaches to resolve issues of incivility, enables the nurses to skillful respond to incivility and protect self and the patients. Cognitive rehearsal utilizes direct communications that help in repairing interactions and de-escalate the situations to assist in ensuring the well-being of other people around you (Walsh & Magley, 2018). The theory advocates for an immediate and appropriate response that fosters collaboration and communication among the involved individuals. Implementing the cognitive rehearsal helps I building excellent opportunity for communication and acknowledging the situation, which further ensures effective future interaction and appropriate behaviour in the workplace. The entire theory involves restructuring the conversation to aid in changing individual actions towards workplace incivility.

The theory relates to the Clark assessment of my workplace because the main problems leading to incivility revolved around lack of respect and unfair treatment of employees as well as conflict resolutions among the staff members. The cognitive rehearsal will help in building proper response to ineffective communication and create an environment to speak about the issues without hurting other employees and the manager. As such, conflicts will be solved peaceful, fairly and with respect. Besides, the theory will help in reducing tension in the workplace, improve employee’s engagement and positively impact the patient outcome.

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.

The cognitive rehearsal theory can be implemented in my workplace through leaders and employees on having an effective response and tension-reduced communications when handling challenges related o workplace incivility and bullying. The theory can be applied to motivate the employees, which increase job satisfaction and increase employee retention in the health institution. The leaders and the employees will be able to settle challenges and come to a common agreement when cognitive rehearsal theory is applied. When the leaders are well equipped on ways to structure an effective communication in a conflict situation, the conflicting individuals will be able to arrive at a mutual resolution, although they have a conflicting background (Walsh & Magley, 2018). Employee training will also help in building strong relationships and effective communication among health professionals, which result in reduced medical errors and better patient outcome. For example, when employees are conflicting, the theory can be used to develop a well-structured communication between the employees, which will enable them to settle their differences and lead to the development of mutual conflict resolution. A civil work environment entails understanding, collaboration and togetherness of the employees to ensure patient safety.

General Notes/Comments

My workplace is unhealthy, with an average score of 51 points after Clark assessment. The organization performed poorly in the treatment of employees, lack of trust and inactive engagement of employees. Besides, the turnover rate is high in the organization, which is a clear indication of job dissatisfaction among health professionals. My organization is also facing workplace incivility because of how conflicts are resolved. Most of the times, the workplace assumes and may not resolve conflicts between the employees, which cause tension when working, hence poor patient outcome. I recommend that my organization implements cognitive rehearsal theory to help in structuring effective communication and developing an appropriate response to conflicts.