Incivility and Healthful Environments (Essay Sample)

Incivility and Healthful Environments Student name Affiliated Institution Course Instructor Due date Incivility and Healthful Environments Incivility is a pervasive problem that has, historically speaking, been disregarded in nursing practice. No matter the location, most nurses have, in some capacity, been a witness to or a victim of rude or disrespectful behavior in the workplace. Acts of incivility in a healthcare setting may take many forms, including silent treatment of co-workers, name-calling, gossiping, blaming, refusing to help, sabotaging, making unfriendly facial expressions, and abusive supervision, among others. There is mounting evidence that such unfriendly behaviors contribute to toxic working environments and negatively impact healthcare outcomes (American Nurses Association, 2015). This paper reflects on my personal experience with incivility in my workplace. Although healthcare institutions strive to prevent instances of incivility, they are nonetheless common. In my previous workplace, I witnessed co-workers experiencing almost all sorts of workplace incivility on a daily basis.  I worked in the critical care unit, administering the prescribed drugs and fluids to patients and measuring their vital signs. A new nurse who had just graduated from college joined the team after a former member was transferred. She was allocated a mentor, who had greater experience in the unit and happened to be older in terms of age, to guide and assist the new nurse throughout her professional development journey. The mentor could yell at the new nurse whenever she forgot to follow any of the countless complex and challenging nursing instructions. This mentor’s unfriendly conduct persisted until the new nurse made a medical administration error. The new nurse happened to have oversedated a patient who was on mechanical ventilation. This affected the patient adversely as it increased brain dysfunction. The new nurse was publicly criticized by the mentor, expressing her dissatisfaction with her for not being able to do such “a simple task” by herself. She was also blamed for not paying attention and being ignorant. But it seemed like the mentor was too busy worrying about other tasks in her schedule to give the new nurse a detailed explanation of the procedure and the appropriate dosage for the patient. As a result, the graduate nurse situation made the graduate nurse feel demoralized and incapable of delivering competently. She even began doubting her ability to perform expertly. In her opinion, she was not offered any instructions by the mentor as she assumed it was an easy task. She felt quite embarrassed and offended. As a result, the work environment lost its positive character of teamwork and excellent outcomes. I believe the situation could have been prevented by providing comprehensive instructions to the new nurse and even a practical example of how the procedure is done for her to gain practical knowledge. Strategies for a Healthful Environment Workplace incivility should be discouraged at all costs.  To realize this aim, it is vital to devise strategies that facilitate the formation of a healthy environment. One of the tactics is to place safety at the fore...