Exam Content
Employee engagement is a human resources concept that describes an employee’s level of enthusiasm and commitment to their job. An employee who is highly engaged in their job is one who enjoys performing that job and is always looking for ways to improve their performance. Engaged employees are satisfied with their job and are committed to it. An employee who is not engaged is one who has no enthusiasm for doing their job, is someone who always has a negative outlook on performing their job, and can even be described as burned out. When you apply this to nursing, you can immediately see how employees who are not engaged can lead to poor quality, safety, and patient experience outcomes. Employees who are not engaged also have a significantly higher rate of job turnover. Conversely, when nurses are engaged, they are satisfied with their job and are happy, they are more committed to their job, and they make fewer errors.
But how can you determine whether your employees are engaged, and if not, what can be changed to engage them? High job turnover, excessive absences, and an increased rate of errors can all point to low engagement (burnout). But those are not causes of disengagement; they are just the results. Nursing has developed a means to reliably evaluate the quality of the environment that nurses work in and its impact on patient outcomes and nurse retention. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) is a commonly used instrument that measures the nurse practice environment. A healthy work environment is a critical factor in nurse satisfaction, retention, and quality patient outcomes.
In this assignment, you are presented with the survey results of RN satisfaction on 4 topics that are key to determining employee engagement. (Note: There are 5 topics total, but organizations pick 4 of the topics on which to be surveyed. All 5 topics are below.) Each topic is comprised of several questions that are used to formulate the results. Below you will find the topics and the subtopics that comprise them.
Nurse Participation in Hospital Affairs
Career development/clinical ladder opportunity
Opportunity for staff nurses to participate in policy decisions
A chief nursing officer who is highly visible and accessible to staff
A chief nursing officer equal in power and authority to other top-level hospital executives
Opportunities for advancement
An administration that listens and responds to employee concerns
Staff nurses involved in the internal governance of the hospital (e.g., practice and policy committees)
Staff nurses serving on hospital and nursing committees
Nursing administrators who consult with staff on daily problems and procedures
Nursing Foundations for Quality of Care
Active staff development or continuing education programs for nurses
High standards of nursing care expected by the administration
A clear philosophy of nursing that pervades the patient care environment
Working with nurses who are clinically competent
An active quality assurance program
A preceptor program for newly hired RNs
Nursing care based on nursing, rather than a medical model
Written, up-to-date nursing care plans for all patients
Patient care assignments that foster continuity of care (i.e., the same nurse cares for the patient from one day to the next)
Use of nursing diagnoses
Nurse Manager Ability, Leadership, and Support of Nurses
A supervisory staff that is supportive of the nurses
Supervisors who use mistakes as learning opportunities, not criticism
A nurse manager who is a good manager and leader
Praise and recognition for a job well done
A nurse manager who backs up the nursing staff in decision-making, even if the conflict is with a physician
Staffing and Resource Adequacy
Adequate support services allow for quality time with patients
Enough time and opportunity to discuss patient care problems with other nurses
Enough registered nurses to provide quality patient care
Enough staff to get the work done
Collegial Nurse-Physician Relations
Good working relationships between physicians and nurses
A lot of teamwork between nurses and physicians
Collaboration (joint practice) between nurses and physicians
Watch “Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI)” to learn how to use the PES-WEI survey result.
Video with Transcriipt
Imagine you are the CNO of Pamplemousse Hospital in 2018; in other words, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. You are very aware of the nursing shortage that exists. Part of your strategy to address the shortage is to ensure the nurse turnover rate remains as low as possible. Because nurse satisfaction generally translates into retaining nurses, you understand the benefit of pinpointing areas where satisfaction is low. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index has proven to be a reliable instrument to determine nurse satisfaction.
To proactively keep the turnover rate low, you order the survey to be done. The results are provided to you on the Pamplemousse Employee Engagement Survey Excel file.
In this file, you will find tabs for all nursing units in your hospital. These tabs run along the bottom of the file. Clicking each will pull up the table for that tab’s units. There are 14 tabs in total.
Review the results and pinpoint areas that need immediate attention (i.e., units with areas well below the mean).
Based on the units you identified, your next step is to formulate a plan to intervene and influence the turnover rate. Consider the questions that were included under each subheading as you determine what you will do to address RN satisfaction in each area for each unit that falls well below the mean. Also, consider the unit’s specialty and unique characteristics when devising your plan.
From the survey, select 6 areas to address (you must cover each survey category once, all from the same unit or from different units, and 2 other categories from any unit that falls below the mean.).
For each of the 6 areas, answer the following questions:
Consider the questions asked for each category and the type of unit that scored below the mean. What types of concerns would you expect from each unit? Provide a rationale for your assumptions.
Looking at the data, what types of questions would you have for the unit that would help provide a clearer understanding of their low ratings?
What answers do you think the unit will provide?
What potential solutions would you offer?
How do you test it?
How do you measure it to understand if things are improving in that area?
Create a 12- to 15-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation in which you answer the questions above for each of the 6 survey results to address the potential areas of high turnover rates.
Cite a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed scholarly sources according to APA guidelines.
Submit your assignment.
Resources
Center for Writing Excellence
Reference and Citation Generator
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https://multimedia.phoenix.edu/video/?v=717937425
https://myresource.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/NSG547v2/nsg547_v2_wk5_pamplemousse_employee_engagement_survey_results.xlsx
GRADING RUBIC
Maximum Score
180 points
1. Evaluate survey results.
10% of total grade
2. Unit 1: Provide a reasonable assumption.
15% of total grade
3. Unit 2: Provide a reasonable assumption.
15% of total grade
4. Unit 3: Provide a reasonable assumption.
15% of total grade
5. Unit 4: Provide a reasonable assumption.
15% of total grade
6. Unit 5: Provide a reasonable assumption.
15% of total grade
7. Unit 6: Provide a reasonable assumption.
15% of total grade