PLENARY 2: Creating and Sustaining Civility in Nursing Education and Practice

Description/Overview: Incivility can have devastating and lasting effects on individuals, teams, and organizations. In nursing and other health-related disciplines, the risk assumed by not addressing uncivil and disruptive behavior can negatively impact patient safety and quality care. Academic and practice nurses report the distressing effects of incivility in education and clinical settings, and many express a desire to address the problem. This is important since creating and sustaining healthy, civil workplaces improves communication, teamwork, morale, individual and organizational trust, and work satisfaction. Perhaps more importantly, building cultures of civility and promoting healthy workplaces foster patient safety and positive health outcomes. As the largest component of the health care population, nurses are uniquely positioned to lead change at all levels of the health care system. This expectation will require nurses to strengthen their capacity to transform the culture of academic and health care organizations. Nurses must increase their aptitude to foster organizational civility, mobilize broad-based change, and achieve tangible results. Leading change and transforming an organizational culture requires courage, effective leadership, and a commitment to the long-term. Thus, skillful and talented nurse leaders are critical to implementing successful change, redefining the future, aligning people, and inspiring action to achieve a compelling vision for a healthy, civil workplace. This plenary session will facilitate a better understanding of incivility, its impact on academic and practice environments, and the research that provides an empirical foundation for understanding and addressing these phenomena. Dr. Clark will facilitate an assessment of one’s own workplace civility index and identify pragmatic strategies to foster a civil, professional work environment. Dr. Clark will use polling questions, stories, empirical evidence, and open discussion to provide an overview of incivility in nursing education and to describe a wide range of evidence-based strategies to recognize, prevent, and address incivility in nursing education and practice.