ACADEMIC PLENARY: Creating and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments in Academic Settings

Description/Overview: The campaign to focus on creating healthy work environments in clinical settings to recruit and retain nurses is nearly a decade old. However, schools of nursing face a crisis of great proportion in the first decades of the twenty-first century and may require similar attention. Enormous need for new nurses educated at the highest levels coupled with a dire shortage of nursing faculty and clinical sites has created a perfect storm. This is an important time to focus on environments not only where nurses practice but also on the education arena itself, which is where the formation of the next generation of nurses occurs. Consider that when a culture of incivility is allowed to grow, it can harm the productivity and the happiness of all involved. This presentation highlights the importance of promoting a health environment in academic schools of nursing where all can flourish: faculty, staff, and students. Exemplars from the University of Virginia School of Nursing are used to show one process on the journey to promoting a healthy work environment. Now is the right time to focus on the academy and a healthy workplace. With soaring retirements, new faculty and staff are all craving a supportive, even happier work environment.