Connecting Patients' Perceptions of Nurses' Daily Care Actions, Organizational Human Caring Culture, and Overall Hospital Rating in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Surveys

A healthy nurse work environment is a workplace that is safe, empowering, and satisfying. Many research studies were conducted on nurse work environments in the last decade; however, it lacks an overview of these research studies. The purpose of this review is to identify, evaluate, and summarize the major foci of studies about nurse work environments in the United States published between January 2005 and December 2017 and provide strategies to improve nurse work environments. Databases searched included MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Nursing and Allied Health, and the Cochrane Library. The literature search followed the PRISMA guideline. Fifty-four articles were reviewed. Five major themes emerged: 1) Impacts of healthy work environments on nurses' outcomes such as psychological health, emotional strains, job satisfaction, and retention; 2) Associations between healthy work environments and nurse interpersonal relationships at workplaces, job performance, and productivity; 3) Effects of healthy work environments on patient care quality; 4) Influences of healthy work environments on hospital accidental safety; and 5) Relationships between nurse leadership and healthy work environments. This review shows that nurses, as frontline patient care providers, are the foundation for patient safety and care quality. Promoting nurse empowerment, engagement, and interpersonal relationships at work is rudimental to achieve a healthy work environment and quality patient care. Healthier work environments lead to more satisfied nurses who will result in better job performance and higher quality of patient care, which will subsequently improve healthcare organizations' financial viability. Fostering a healthy work environment is a continuous effort.

Background There is a poorly understood relationship between Leadership WalkRounds (WR) and domains such as safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life balance. Methods This cross-sectional survey study evaluated associations between receiving feedback about actions taken as a result of WR and healthcare worker assessments of patient safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life balance, across 829 work settings. Results 16 797 of 23 853 administered surveys were returned (70.4%). 5497 (32.7% of total) reported that they had participated in WR, and 4074 (24.3%) reported that they participated in WR with feedback. Work settings reporting more WR with feedback had substantially higher safety culture domain scores (first vs fourth quartile Cohen’s d range: 0.34–0.84; % increase range: 15–27) and significantly higher engagement scores for four of its six domains (first vs fourth quartile Cohen’s d range: 0.02–0.76; % increase range: 0.48–0.70). Conclusion This WR study of patient safety and organisational outcomes tested relationships with a comprehensive set of safety culture and engagement metrics in the largest sample of hospitals and respondents to date. Beyond measuring simply whether WRs occur, we examine WR with feedback, as WR being done well. We suggest that when WRs are conducted, acted on, and the results are fed back to those involved, the work setting is a better place to deliver and receive care as assessed across a broad range of metrics, including teamwork, safety, leadership, growth opportunities, participation in decision-making and the emotional exhaustion component of burnout. Whether WR with feedback is a manifestation of better norms, or a cause of these norms, is unknown, but the link is demonstrably potent.