When the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) launched the Healthy Work Environment (HWE) Standards in 2005, nurses finally had guidance to help improve their work environment. The 6 HWE standards are appropriate staffing, skilled communication, true collaboration, authentic leadership, meaningful recognition, and effective decision-making. The HWE standards were introduced by Dorrie Fontaine, then president of AACN, and the president of the Joint Commission, which demonstrated the commitment these bodies had to improving health care work environments. The HWE standards were released shortly after the VitalSmarts “Silence Kills” study, which focused on the importance of the communication and collaboration of the team for patient safety.

Through the years, Ulrich et al have studied work environments to monitor changes over time. The baseline report was done in 2006, and at that time, 50% of the research participants knew healthy work environments existed and about 50% of them...

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