If there’s one thing I’ve learned from conversations with nurses and leaders, it’s this: we rarely struggle to recognize whether we’re in a healthy work environment. Most of us can tell definitively one way or the other. What we do struggle with is building one in the middle of tight staffing, tight budgets, and competing priorities.
This month, we’re stepping into the topic of healthy work environments—what they really look like, why they matter, and how organizations begin bringing them to life.
In my quest to understand the key ingredients of nurse engagement, last month’s podcast brought us to the topic of culture and the infrastructure required to support it. But I wanted to dig further into the building blocks of that culture. Yes, organizations need financial stability to put roles, processes, and systems in place, but they also need clarity on what those structures are meant to create. That’s where the concept of healthy work environments comes in.
The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has long recognized that healthy work environments are essential for nurses to deliver safe, high-quality care. Decades of research show that strong work environments reduce burnout, improve job satisfaction, strengthen safety outcomes, and decrease intent to leave (Ulrich et al., 2022). Their six evidence-based standards—skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition, and authentic leadership—give organizations a clear picture of what must be present. AACN also provides an assessment tool and roadmap to help organizations understand their current state and begin making progress in each area.
“Culture is fundamentally human work. Technology can support it, but it can’t replace the relational skills needed to create a healthy environment.”
— Nicole Weathers, DNP, RN, NPD‑BC
As I began to dig into these standards, it was so exciting to see how they made something abstract like “culture” so much more tangible. These evidence-based standards translate culture from a feeling you sense when you step onto a unit into a set of daily practices: how we communicate during a stressful shift, how we support each other when things get busy, how decisions are shared, and how leaders show up for their staff.
They remind us that culture is fundamentally human work. Technology and innovation can support it, but they can’t replace the relational skills needed to create a healthy environment. At the end of the day, a healthy work environment is built by the people who are present and working together.
In this month’s podcast, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rebekah Marsh, president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). She shares not only the history behind these standards but also where she sees this work heading in the future as the organization continues to lead nationally in this space. Her insights highlight something we uncovered together—and something I believe deeply: these standards really are the lens that strengthens everything we do.
If you haven’t listened yet, it’s absolutely worth your time.
Nicole Weathers, DNP, RN, NPD-BC
Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program Director
nicole-weathers@uiowa.edu
Wanting a Program Overview? Need to schedule a meeting? Book time with Nicole
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