a greater amount of success. The team members learn through collaboration and are focused on
helping each other be successful. This maximizing of cooperation leads to increased teamwork
among colleagues.
D. Current Trends
Employee engagement is essential in the healthcare organization. One current trend in
healthcare that employers use to recruit, retain or engage employees, is offering tuition
reimbursement as a benefit. When employers provided work-related professional development
tuition reimbursement it keeps the employee’s skills up-to-date and can open up future
opportunities for management positions. Employees that continue their education to better
themselves tend to stay at the organization longer, which improves employee retention.
Providing an opportunity for advancement such as clinical ladders is another current
trend that healthcare organizations are using to improve employee engagement. Clinical ladders
provide career advancement by recognizing and rewarding professional employee development.
Organizations that have leadership that recognize the positive practices that influence employee
engagement creates an atmosphere that people want to be part of. Leaders should motivate their
employees and challenge them to increase their knowledge by continuing their education and
IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES
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completing the clinical ladders provided by the healthcare organization. According to Squazzo
(2011), an important factor in engaging employees is the perception of the growth and
development opportunities an organization can offer.
D1. Relationships
Improving healthcare quality is a high priority for hospitals. They use the relationship
between employee engagement and healthcare quality to measure, report, and provide decision
making outcomes that are meant to improve the delivery of quality of care. Creating and
maintaining a patient-centered environment requires organizations to employ staff members that
are engaged and possess a positive attitude. Employees that are engaged are more productive and
efficient at their job. They also understand their purpose and role within the organization.
Authentic leaders practice self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Therefore
according to Malik, Dhar, & Handa (2016) there is a positive connection between authentic
leadership and employee creativity. Motivated leaders improve employee engagement by
encouraging knowledge creation and sharing. Ultimately this promotes positive patient outcomes
and higher quality of care. Therefore, individual and team creativity should be incentivized and
encouraged by leaders because it also has a positive influence on healthcare organizations.
D2. Current Tools
The current tool used at Mercy Hospital NWA that determines employee engagement is
the Voice of the Co-worker/Provider Survey. It’s completely anonymous and confidential. The
survey measures co-worker/provider engagement by two main metrics: how engaged co-
workers/providers are (disengaged, ambivalent, content, engaged, fully engaged) and what
