Healthful Environments

Healthful Environments

            Healthful Environments I witnessed incivility in the workplace when working in the telemetry unit. John, one of the senior nurses in the unit, would often tell the nursing assistants that they are stupid and useless. He would question every decision they made and often accused them of not following the standard procedures for patient care even though they had implemented the required interventions accurately. I was annoyed by John’s behavior. I felt that his conduct was very unprofessional. My first response was to meet the nurse informally and discuss with him his behavior and its impact on the workplace environment and the performance by the other employees. However, this approach was not fruitful because the nurse did not change his attitude and behavior. My second response was to inform the nurse manager about John’s behavior and request her to take the relevant corrective actions. The nurse manager investigated the allegations made against John, set up conflict-resolution meetings and implemented supportive systems to help John improve his interpersonal and teamwork skills.

            The main consequence of John’s behavior was the demoralization and declined performance of the nursing assistants. The telemetry unit witnessed a significant increase in the number of nursing assistants who were calling in sick on the days they were scheduled to work with John. The situation could have been prevented through ongoing education and training for the nurses to improve their verbal and non-verbal communication and teamwork skills. These skills help employees to identify and resolve emerging disagreements before they have progressed into major conflicts (Asghari, Abdollahzadeh, Ebrahimi, Rahmani, & Vahidi, 2017). Furthermore, effective interpersonal skills help employees in identifying the issues affecting a colleague and his relationship with the coworkers. The coworkers can offer the colleague the appropriate support to ensure a healthy and cohesive work environment.