Staff well-being in high-risk operating room environment: Definition, facilitators, stressors, leadership, and team-working—A case-study from a large teaching hospital

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ABSTRACTPurpose: The purpose of this case-study is to critically evaluate the relationship between healthcare staff well-being and effective team-working in high-risk operating rooms (OR) environment.Background: Evidence suggests that positive staff well-being is associated with better patient care. However, healthcare organisations are lagging behind in prioritising staff well-being. It is acknowledged that delivery of multi-disciplinary care is proportional to effective team-working. The input-process-output (IPO) model theorises the relationship between staff well-being and effective team-working; however, the model's applicability has not been studied in high-risk OR environment.Methodology: Qualitative data were gathered, through semi-structured interviews, from OR nurses working in a large teaching hospital and content analysis was used to identify themes in the written responses.Findings: Five main themes emerged from the data; (i) participants linked well-being with happiness, job satisfaction, and being valued and recognised, (ii) participants held that unscrupulous organisational culture rears negative well-being, (iii) participants strongly argued that healthcare organisation must invest in staff well-being otherwise patient care will suffer, (iv) effective leadership is key to positive well-being and bad leadership behaviours are responsible for negative well-being and low-morale and (v) participants unanimously agreed that well-being drives effective team-working and not the converse.Value: The case-study identifies emotional well-being a key driver for effective team-working and ascertains that strong organisational support and compassionate leadership are critical to nurturing staff well-being. It challenges the widely held IPO model's notion that effective team-working promotes well-being in high-risk OR environment.Implications for nursing management: Case-study invites nurse managers to re-evaluate widely used three-staged (IPO) system approach towards creating an effective team-working in high-risk OR environment.