No doubt by now, you have heard about the American Association for Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments.1 In the June 2005 editorial section of Critical Care Nurse, Grif Alspach2 offers us a lifeline to achieve and sustain healthy work environments and calls on us to get out of our environmental quicksand and take action to implement the standards. Dr Alspach’s article paints for us an all-too-frequent scenario in a day in the life of a critical care nurse. The scene includes the critical care nurse becoming disappointed, frustrated, angry, stressed, disrespected, and isolated while trying to provide safe care. I think it is something we can all relate to. The question is, Are we ready to do something about it?
The purpose of nursing is to meet the needs of patients and their families and to provide safe passage through the healthcare...
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