Positive Work Environments - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

“All workplaces can be healthy if nurses and employers are resolute in their desire to address not only the physical environment, but also less tangible barriers to staff and patient safety”. The American Association of Critical Care Nurses

The necessity of creating a positive work culture can be easily lost In today’s turbulent healthcare environment with the emphasis on reducing costs, improving quality and implementing innovative change. Yet the costs of not doing this can be very high. In a recent Harvard Business review article on Positive Work Environments, it was pointed out that healthcare expenditures are 50% greater at high pressure companies. Researchers Seppala and Cameron identify 6 key essential characteristics of a positive work culture. These include:

Caring for, being interested in and maintaining responsibilities for colleagues and friends.
Providing support for one another – being compassionate when others are struggling.
Avoiding blame and forgiving mistakes.
Inspiring one another at work.
Emphasizing the meaningfulness of the work.
Treating one another with respect, gratitude, trust and integrity.

These characteristics are well known in nursing. At the beginning of this decade, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses made a commitment as an organization to actively promote the creation of healthy work environments. There is growing evidence in the nursing literature about the positive impact of healthy work environments on staff satisfaction, retention, improved patient outcomes and organizational performance. Many organizations have launched efforts to improve their work environments but nurse leaders at the frontline level have a huge impact.

So how can you as a leader foster the characteristics of a positive work environment in your own setting. Seppala and Cameron offer these 4 suggestions:

Foster Social Connections among staff – research indicates that positive social connections at work produce highly desirable results in how staff feel about their work environment.
Show Empathy as the leader – leaders who demonstrate compassion towards their staff foster individual and collective resilience during challenging times.
Go out of your way to help – leaders who help staff are viewed as more trustworthy and staff are more likely to be cooperative.
Encourage people to talk with you about their problems – when staff feel safe to talk with their leaders about their problems, this encourages superior performance and loyalty.

Creating a positive work environment for staff can serve as a strong buffer against negative outside forces. This is so necessary in today’s environment that can sometimes seem cold and simply focused on the bottom line. It also results in increased loyalty to the nurse leader which in return promotes retention.

Read to Lead

American Association of Critical Care Nurses (2005). AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments. AACN Healthy Work Environments

Kramer, M. & Schmalenberg, C. (2008). Confirmation of a Healthy Work Environment. Critical Care Nurse, 28(3), 56-63.

Seppala, E. & Cameron, K. (December 1, 2015). Proof that Positive Cultures Are More Productive. Harvard Business Review Online.