Changing Unit Culture One Bite at a Time.

Abstract

Have you heard the parable about how to eat an elephant? The answer is that you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Such a slow, methodical process can feel frustrating and tedious, especially when the elephant represents a task like changing the culture of your workplace. Creating a healthy work environment (HWE) is challenging and can be overwhelming at the best of times. With the current negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the health care community, it is even more important now to take that first bite. Data from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) consistently show that implementing the HWE standards leads to better nurse staffing and retention and less moral distress.In “Implementing AACN’s Healthy Work Environment Framework in an Intensive Care Unit,” Kester et al describe 2 years of working toward improving the health of their work environment. Their research details their journey from unit assessment using AACN’s healthy work environment assessment tool (HWEAT) to developing, implementing, and evaluating a plan targeting interventions to improve each of the 6 HWE standards.