Ambassador Best Practices: Healthy Work Environments

Name:	Kim Uddo, Charity School of Nursing
Summary:	I created a critical thinking pilot activity that was collaborative in nature and builds plans of care. The pilot was evaluated on how well it met the clinical student learning outcomes but also on implementation of the AACN's Healthy Work Environment Standards. The activity was found to promote many of the standards. The pilot is a peer evaluation activity using rubrics for collaborative performance and a grading rubric for the plan of care. Hopefully, this type of nursing school activity will help the new graduates to contribute to a healthy work environment. Copies of the pilot are available upon request.
3 critical success factors:	More effective communication Improved collaboration Guiding practice by using standards from a reliable source
Outcomes/ goals/data measurement:	I have the data collected on survey monkey and is available for review. The pilot is measured against each of the standards for healthy work environment. Positive results and outcome were found.

Name:	Sonia Almeida, Children’s Hospital of Boston
Summary:	I was the co-author for a poster presentation titled "Optimizing Outcomes: The Healthy Work Environment Initiative in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit." The poster was accepted by the ANCC Magnet Conference held October 2011, in Baltimore, Md. We offered satisfaction surveys and possible future goals for improving healthy work environments. We provide coaching and mentoring for staff on difficult conversations and situations. We encourage staff to attend forums or seminars on “Talking like a Leader” or “Communications Coaching”. We also offer pay compensation for these classes. We implemented nursing huddles in our unit, which at times works in collaboration with the rest of the CICU team, to educate staff, ease stressful assignments and bring all members of the team together at some point during each day.
3 critical success factors:	Having close conversations with small groups helps to focus on certain topics. Placing posters or reading material in break rooms or even the bathroom draws the attention of staff.
Outcomes/ goals/data measurement:	We will begin to look for data to improve in future surveys. We will also look for direct feedback from staff and will continue to talk about healthy work environments during nursing huddles and nursing rounds.

Name:	Benny Marett, Mary Kaye Halterman, Lauren McCauley and Tina Cronin, Piedmont Medical Center
Summary:	Mary Kaye Halterman, our CNO, and Benny Marett coordinated a hospital-wide healthy work environment initiative through a full-day course offered to hospital directors, managers, clinical coordinators and other professionals in leadership positions within the hospital. Lauren McCauley and I are two of the instructors for this full-day course and we are strong advocates for AACN.
3 critical success factors:	Multidisciplinary engagement in the HWE initiative Introduction of the six essential elements paired with interactive group discussion and projects that promote the core concepts Inspiration and enthusiasm for making our work environment better through good communication, authentic leadership and all levels of management participation
Outcomes/ goals/data measurement:	We see an improvement in the communication between units and disciplines. We have positive role modeling by the leadership team and utilizing the core concepts. We have already seen an improvement in the relationships between nursing units, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, dietary, environmental and all the various departments participating. It's been a great experience and we are all excited to see the positive changes all the way to the bedside.