One of the critical issues in the healthcare setting is promoting a healthy and safe work environment. Incivility in nursing is a workplace concern that contributes to a toxic and unsafe work environment: incivility can be described as a lack of respect, kindness, communication, and fairness (Clark, 2015). It is important to address incivility in nursing as it eventually affects staff satisfaction, productivity, retention, and patient safety (Clark, 2019).  This discussion will therefore discuss civility in my workplace based on the Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory results, showing examples of incivility and how the issues were handled within the workplace.

                                                                                          Results of Assessment

The Clark Healthy Workplace Inventory costs 20 statements measured on a scale of 1 to 5: the total scores are added up to show the level of civility. A score of at least 60 shows a healthy work environment while a score below 60 is unhealthy.  The inventory reflects the six standards of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses recommends for an organization to qualify as a healthy workplace: appropriate staffing, authentic leadership, skilled communication, true collaboration, and meaningful recognition (Clark, 2015). Based on these standards and the inventory, the organization’s score for level of civility was 73: a score of between 70 and 79 reflects a mildly healthy environment.

                                                                                                 Evaluation

The results of the inventory revealed that the organization is civil. Among the factors that contribute to this level of civility is a shared vision and mission. The first thing that the nurse leaders have ensured happens in the employment of new nurses is to take them through an induction process of the hospital's values, mission, and vision. All staff are required to maintain and treat others with respect, show trust, and always work in collaboration with each other. The organization scored highest in how members lived by these values and the mission and vision of the organization. The organization also scored high on trust among members of the organization and clear and transparent communication. Additionally, the results revealed that staff are treated as assets and valued partners, they are consulted in decision-making and individual and collective achievement is celebrated. However, the organization had below-average scores on competitive salary and compensation, employee wellness and self-care, and distribution of workload. This indication of incivility has contributed to other organizational problems such as nurse shortage: most staff are not motivated, are unsatisfied with their work, and experience unsatisfactory relationships which contributed to high attrition (Hossny & Sabra, 2021). However, generally, the organization would be considered a civil place.

                                                                                                   Incidence of Incivility

The score of 73 shows that the organization is civil but there are still incidences that show there is room for improvement. One example is when I initially joined the organization, I had a high passion and was very excited to be a team member and willing to take up tasks beyond my job description. However, after some time, the older nurses began to take advantage of “my willingness” to work to hand over very hectic tasks. With the high acuity of patients in the past year, the other nurses assigned me to take care of the acute patients. The experiences led to a high incidence of burnout, and absenteeism at work that the assigned supervisor noticed to call for a meeting to discuss the issue. During the meeting the assigned supervisor ensured to remind the experienced nurses of their ethical obligation to promote a healthy workplace and that each of the nurses regardless of their level of experience had a right to fair work.  The nurse leader hence provided a work shift plan for all nurses to reduce the incidence of uneven workload in the future. It is the responsibility of the leaders to ensure that the well-being of the nurses is addressed at all times (Broome & Marshall, 2021). Additionally, by fostering accountability for the nurses responsible, the nurse leaders showed acceptable behavior and encouraged the other nurses to act civil (Ota et al., 2022).

                                                                                                     References

Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to the 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. https://www.americannursetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ant11-CE-Civility-1023.pdfLinks to an external site.