Assessment of Work Environment Health in a Suburban Nursing Facility

Background: Developing and maintaining healthy work environments in healthcare organizations is vital to quality outcomes and optimized reimbursement. While the American Association of Critical Care Nurses’ Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments are well established in the acute care setting, little is known about their impact in the post-acute environment. Methods: A modified version of the Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT) was distributed electronically to nurses, unlicensed assistive personnel, and nurse leaders over a 30-day period. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographics and survey responses by item and in the aggregate. Results: The response rate was low, rendering any inferential analysis moot. Participants somewhat-to-strongly agreed in greater than 80% of the responses that the site upholds the Standards in skilled communication, effective decision making, and authentic leadership. Conversely, participants somewhat-to-strongly disagreed in 20% or greater of the responses that the site could improve Standards performance in true collaboration, appropriate staffing, and meaningful recognition. Discussion: Recommendations are made for further exploration of specific aspects of the Standards as well as to repeat the survey. Major limitations of the study include the modification of the HWEAT and a low response rate. Conclusion: Further exploration is necessary to provide trustworthy data for site-specific quality improvement. Further research would better describe how healthy work environment standards may benefit post-acute settings overall.D.N.P., Nursing Practice -- Drexel University, 201