Care failings due to the effects of staff shortages and COVID-19 have highlighted the need to develop effective workplace cultures in older people’s nursing

The importance of workplace culture has been at the forefront of practice development for many years. As early as 2004, Rob Garbett and Brendan McCormack identified the transformation of contexts and cultures of care as an essential purpose of practice development.

Since then, our insights into workplace cultures, their effect on providers and recipients of care, and how to develop good cultures have multiplied.

• RELATED: ‘Guiding Lights for effective workplace cultures’: enhancing the care environment for staff and patients in older people’s care settings

By reflecting on the workplace, we can ask the question: does our workplace culture enable us to grow and thrive, or wither and lose joy in our work?

Several reports have highlighted significant failings in care due to the effect of workforce shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Shared vision for future healthcare

As a result of these failings, it is crucial to focus on the development of effective workplace cultures in older people’s nursing as in all care settings – cultures in which individuals and teams can grow and develop together, share a vision, and look forward to a future when well-being, compassion and care are central.

Our organisations have a vital role in setting the context of workplace culture, which is created by us and our colleagues, and reflected in the norms of everyday practice.

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Sometimes, we need help to make sense of our workplace culture, and to understand what is happening and why. This involves seeing care through the eyes of patients and their loved ones.

As our CPD article ‘Guiding Lights for effective workplace cultures’: enhancing the care environment for staff and patients in older people’s care settings discusses, we need to ask what we can do to make our workplaces better, not only for ourselves and our colleagues, but above all for the people we care for.

Reference

Garbett R, McCormack B (2004) A concept analysis of practice development. In McCormack B, Manley K, Garbett R (Eds) Practice Development in Nursing. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 10-32

Jonathan Webster is professor of practice development and co-director, ImpACT Research Group, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Kate Sanders is practice development facilitator, Foundation of Nursing Studies, London