Background

The Healthy Work Environments (HWE) Best Practice Guidelines (BPG) are designed to support health care organizations in creating and sustaining work positive environments.  This work is led by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and support from Health Canada, Office of Nursing Policy. The initial goal of the program was the development of six guidelines and systematic literature reviews related to healthy work environments. The six areas included leadership, collaborative practice, workload and staffing, professionalism, embracing diversity and workplace health, safety, and well-being. For the project a healthy work environment was defined as “a practice setting that maximizes the health and well-being of nurses, quality patient outcomes and organizational and system performance”.

Program Activities

The Healthy Work Environments BPGs are regularly featured at a variety of provincial, national, and international events such as:

- Workshops for Military Hospital 309 and Shanghai #5 Peoples' Hospital April 2009 in China.

 - Jewish General Hospital's Faye Fox Education Day on May 1, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec.

- Clinical Nursing Symposium on May 27, 2009.

- Sick Kids Wellness Fair on October 14-15, 2009 in Toronto, Ontario.

- Canadian Association of Wound Care Conference on Ocotober 30, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec.

- Shanghai International Conference of Nursing in China on November 17, 2009.

- Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador Educational Seminar on December 1, 2009.

Collaborative Practice Among Nursing Teams Guideline

Co-Chairs: Dr. Diane Doran & Leslie Vincent
This guideline explores the complexities of diverse compositions, contexts and structures of nursing teams in an ever changing, interdisciplinary environment. The focus of this guideline is to support nurses in their journey towards excellence in communication, leadership skills and knowledge of teamwork to build a better tomorrow for patients/clients and nurses, present and future.

Developing and Sustaining Nursing Leadership Guideline

Chair: Dr. Heather Laschinger

This best practice guideline identifies and describes:

- leadership practices that result in healthy outcomes for nurses, patients/clients, organizations and systems;

-  system resources that support effective leadership practices;

- organizational culture, values and resources that support effective leadership practices;

- personal resources that support effective leadership practices and

- anticipated outcomes of effective nursing leadership.

Developing and Sustaining Effective Staffing and Workload Practices Guideline

Chair: Dr. Linda O’Brien-Pallas

Deputy Chairs:  Donna Thomson  & Phyllis Giovannetti

This guideline is to be used as a reference to assist in workload planning and workload management decision making.  The guideline explores how the decision making process must ensure that appropriate structures and supports are in place to maximize the nursing effort resulting in the best possible care and positive outcomes for patients/clients, nursing personnel, and the organization.

Chair: Rani Srivastava
This guideline recommends a congruent set of work place behaviours, management practices and institutional policies within a practice setting that result in an organizational environment that is respectful and inclusive of cultural and other forms of diversity.  This guideline provides an overview of the most compelling evidence that leaders at every level can use to embed work places with a culture that moves all team members past knowing about diversity to understanding it, accepting the differences it brings to work settings, and finally to seeking and embracing it.

Professionalism in Nursing Guideline

Chair: Dr. Andrea Baumann
The overall goals and objectives of the Professional in Nursing Guideline are:      

- To identify professional practices that enhance outcomes for nurses, the recipients of nursing services, organizations and systems                                              

- To identify the organizational culture, values and relationships and the structures and processes required for developing and sustaining effective professional practices   

Professional practice involves structures and processes needed to achieve outcomes.  Ensuring professional practice standards involves being accountable to your workplace for your actions and the implementation of a high ethical standard.  Through translating knowledge into action, professional practice standards are met.

Workplace Health, Safety and Well-being of the Nurse Guideline

Chair: Dr. Mary Ferguson-Paré
This guideline explores the organizational systems and supports that promote and enhance the health, wellness and safety of nurses in their workplaces.  This guideline speaks to the impacts of health, wellness and safety focused environments for nurses on quality outcomes for patients/clients, nurses, organizations and systems.

Preventing Violence in the Workplace

Co-Chairs: Margaret Keatings and Daina Mueller

The purpose of this best practice guideline is to foster a healthy work environment by recognizing, preventing and effectively intervening in violence in the workplace.

Guidelines in Development

• Interprofessional Team Care
• Managing Conflict in Health-Care Teams
  

Guideline Evaluation

The foundational six Healthy Work Environments Best Practice Guidelines were piloted in nine sites across Ontario. Theses sites included:: Centre for Addiction & Mental Health; Headwaters Health Care Centre; Kingston General Hospital & Hotel Dieu Hospital; Queensway Carleton Hospital; Saint Elizabeth Health Care; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; William Osler Health Centre; and York Central Hospital.  The evaluation was led by Dr. Linda O’Brien-Pallas and Sara White of the University of Toronto Nursing Health Services Research Unit, with support from HWE BPG panel members and the RNAO.