Creating Healthy Work Environments in Critical Care Nursing

Having unhealthy working conditions in healthcare results in the erosion of the quality, efficiency and safety of patient care delivery and attrition from the profession of nursing. As payors of care for healthcare systems move towards reimbursement models where the value of care is more significant than the quantity of care delivered, evidence based interventions that address unhealthy work environments will become less uncertain and more of an inevitability to meet the care delivery demands in today's society. Current trends in healthcare and the expectation of the public has made the expectations of healthcare delivery more complex than ever before. Working within an effective interdiscplinary team is key in the achievement of optimal patient outcomes. Nurse Leaders serve as the change agents that are responsible for the successful implementation of the evidenced based intervention to support change within the practice environment to foster healthy work environments. As transformational leaders that utilize the leadership skill of emotional intelligence, nurse leaders will be able to positively influence the behavior of all care providers by building trusting relationships that foster true collaboration between leadership, nursing staff, and other healthcare discplines to accept changes in the practice environment that encourage healthy interdiscplinary interactions.

Having a healthy work environment in healthcare, especially for the profession of nursing plays a major role in the dynamics of patient care delivery and for those who provide the care. Therefore, it is imperative that work environments foster the development of interprofessional relationships that support the fundamental aspects of caring in the nursing practice setting. The relationship based care model (RBC) is fundamental in the creation of healthy work environments that foster high quality patient care delivery and optimal patient outcomes. In addition, fostering an ethical work environment that provides a forum for nurses to function freely as ethical agents serves as a medium that will support and assist nursing staff to engage and to be able to successfully transcend through clinical, emotional and ethical difficulties that have the potential of negatively impacting the work environment so to safeguard patient care delivery and outcomes.