Gallup research has indicated that nurses score differently from
other healthcare workers and the U.S. working population overall on
several key employee engagement items. (See graphic below.)
Last week's Tuesday Briefing examined how scores on two
items on Gallup's Q12 employee engagement instrument (sense of
mission and access to necessary materials and equipment) differ
among nurses, other healthcare workers, and the U.S. working
population in general. This week's column addresses two more Q12
items Gallup has found to be key differentiators between nurses and
the general population, and addresses underlying causes of those
differences.
"My associates are committed to doing quality work."
Of all of the Gallup Q12 questions, staff commitment to quality
is one of the most important indicators for an engaged healthcare
workplace. Healthcare workers score above the general Gallup
workplace database on this item, but one specific group scores
below even the overall Gallup database: nurses. Because nurses
typically have more patient contact than any other healthcare
worker does, this is an especially disturbing trend.
Nurses often carry the general feeling that their associates are
becoming less driven by commitment to patient-care quality and more
driven by business outcomes. However, a low nursing staff
engagement level could also lead to an erosion of the quality of
care commitment and delivery over time.
"I have a best friend at work."
The "best friend" question generates more discussion among
professionals in all industries than does any other Q12 item,
because its connection to productivity isn't intuitive. But Gallup
research shows that it is an extremely powerful indicator of
workplace engagement. Unfortunately, it is also the item on which
nurses tend to register the lowest scores.
Providing high-quality healthcare is a team effort. Gallup's
data analysis has established that patient perceptions of staff
teamwork are strongly linked to patient satisfaction, and that the
"best friend" question is a major predictor of successful teamwork
and the level of trust employees have in one another.
Nursing managers sometimes offer the explanation that the need
to work long shifts in a demanding hospital environment is not
conducive to developing close friendships, but Gallup research has
found that this is not necessarily true of comparable conditions in
other professions. High turnover rates and staffing shortages are
more likely to be causes of low scores on this item. Nurses often
float from shift to shift and unit to unit, and large numbers of
temporary staff members are employed to compensate for nurse
shortages, so nurses may find themselves working with a different
group every day. All of these factors can contribute to low scores
on the "best friend" question.
Key Points
A strong sense of mission, insufficient access to materials and
equipment, commitment to quality, and the lack a best friend at
work are issues that, for better or worse, tend to differentiate
nurses from other healthcare workers and the rest of the U.S.
workforce. The "commitment to quality" and "best friend" items are
two of the lowest-scoring Q12 items among nurses in Gallup's
database. Hospitals may be able vastly improve the engagement
levels of their nursing units by emphasizing the facility's
commitment to quality patient care and creating a sense of teamwork
at the unit level.
Ben Klima contributed to this article.
