Workplace citizenship is the perspective that the employees of an institution have where they extend their behaviours beyond the normal duties. Workplace citizenship behaviour in other words means working further than the minimum expected from the individual. The behaviour showcased by the employee can have huge impact on the workplace environment and whole organisation. Good practices at the workplace keeps the workplace positive and it also helps in raising the satisfaction and happiness level in employees. When there is a positive work environment the employees will be more optimistic and less stressed, which in turn helps in better efficiency. This paper discusses about the relevance of social responsibility, communication and team work in nursing framework. It also highlights how nurses display social responsibility and discusses about the significance of communication and teamwork in nursing. This paper establishes the importance of mutually interrelated communication and teamwork to work with the multidisciplinary team members.

The American Nurses Association (ANA, 2010) defines nursing as a healthcare profession where the health of the individual, families and the whole population is optimized, protected and promoted. Nursing is a divine profession where care is given from birth to the last breath of an individual. In addition to the advanced clinical skills and technical knowledge, nurses should integrate workplace attributes to achieve their title role in society and work field. In nursing development of constructive citizenship values and its application in work field enables to achieve a rewarding career. In work field, a professionally competent registered nurse must showcase high degree of social responsibility, work efficiently with teams by communicating effectively. These values produce and empower professionally competent nurses who perform efficiently in their related discipline.

Communication is basically the transfer of ideas from sender to the receiver even though, globalization brought great advancements which changed communication channels (Dwyer, 2012). Nurses’ everyday communicate with patients, families, other allied health professionals and administrators. Communication is very important as it promote efficient, safe and high quality care. There are three main components in a successful communication: sender, receiver and message (Dwyer, 2012). In nursing profession there is a great amount of information to be shared in limited time span. There are many factors which influence how the message is interpreted. This include the location where the communication occurred, past experience and personal perceptions of both sender and receiver. Miscommunication refers to lack of clarity in transferring the required information which leads to misinterpretation of the situation. Miscommunication can have drastic effects, even to the death of the patient. Best example will be importance of the patient report at the shift change. The nurse who is relieving the shift have to communicate about the condition of the patient including treatments, medications and anything which happened during the shift to the nurse who is commencing the next shift.

Honesty is very important for effective communication in nursing. ()Do not offer anything to a patient unless the nurse can deliver it, if nurse cannot follow it, explain why nurse cannot deliver to the patient. Nurses have to be responsive and available. The patient and the family will be agitated if they feel they are ignored. Sometimes this might be due to faults in the communication process. Implement corrective measures so that, communication process goes though faultlessly and in a timely manner.

Verbal component in the communication process is very minute compared to the nonverbal part. ()Study conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) found that spoken words contributes only seven percent in a communication process. () Facial expression comprised of fifty five percentage and thirty eight percent is from the tone of voice. () The study also claims that, one way or another we are communicating always, even if we are not speaking. ()Nurses have to pay attention to the body language, eye contact and tone of voice when talking to patients, families, co-workers, superiors and virtually everyone. Effective communication plays a pivotal role in promoting integrated flow of information, collaboration between team members and results in immediate patient recovery.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Like any other professions, nursing is an essential part of the society and it continues to grow and evolve. Cambridge dictionary defines social responsibility as a practice of producing goods and services in a way that is not harmful to the society or the environment. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/social-responsibility). Social responsibility refers to obligation of a person which is measured by the thoughts and beliefs of an individual. Social responsibility of a nurse refers to the ethical and moral obligations permeating the profession (). Main components of social responsibility are defined in the professional guidelines laid by Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (NMBA). These standards cover patient care, integrity, morals, responsibility and collaboration with the other allied healthcare professionals. These code of ethics are very important and these must be abided by each professional. Ethical violations could result on suspension or permanent loss of the professional license. Nurses have integrated roles to play individually and collectively in the society which is rooted in code of ethics and professional guidelines in terms of human dignity, social justice, integrity and altruism(Riley, & Beal, 2010).

The most important responsibility of a nurse is to abide the interest of a patient above any other concern or bias. Nurse has to support and respect patient’s self-determination regardless of the patient’s sex, age, nationality, race and medical condition. The nurse has to ensure patient safety and protect professional integrity. Nurse has to collaborate fully with other nurses, doctors and multidisciplinary team members.

Another important responsibility to be showcased by the nurses is being an advocate for the patients. Nurses should work for the patient’s rights, privacy protection and their choice for being part of a medical research. Nurses are accountable for their judgement and action. Accountability still exists when a duty is delegated to colleague or subordinate. The nurses also have the duty of respect and morality to themselves and others around them including patients. Nurses must maintain lifelong learning commitment and professional growth. They must be moral, express wisdom, courage and honesty. Nurses who have the leadership roles must nurture ethical nursing practices and retain an environment where subordinates can raise complaints.

Nurses have a social responsibility for community education. They have to share the knowledge about the health, wellness and ways to resist diseases. Nurses should take part in the community outreach programs and activities related to healthcare. Nurses also must have knowledge about national and global health concerns, outbreaks, epidemics and infectious diseases and vaccines.

Nurses should be able to provide equally accessible nursing care. They have to provide accountable, equitable, culturally and socially responsive high quality health care to all the sections of the population. Nurses are responsible for the actions and accountable to the duties they undertake. They must ensure to practice the duty of care through every aspect of work they undertake.

A professionally competent registered nurse not only completes the professional registration requirements, but they actively participate in the community settings to provide the best care to the community members. Social responsibility is a skill which must be expanded from the experiences gained in professional life through continuous practice.

TEAMWORK

In any line of work, effective team work enables to achieve common goal by working together with the group members. Organ defines (as cited in Yun et al., 2007) organizational citizenship behaviour as individual quality which cannot be recognized directly but plays a vital role in the effective functioning of the organization. The leadership typology determines and influences team organizational citizenship behaviour. The roles and responsibilities are allocated to team members by leaders. Aversive, directive, transactional leaderships force the members to work for team so they results in team anti-citizenship behaviour (TACB). On the other hand, transformational and empowering leaderships motivates the members to work with the team which causes team organizational citizenship behaviour (TOCB). TOCB increases job satisfaction and overall productivity. Positive organizational citizenship outcomes are achieved through assertive and efficient communication between the team members. Nurses must work with people and not for them. This feeling of togetherness and cooperation between team members improve job satisfaction and enhances productivity by immediate patient recovery.

CONCLUSION

This paper talks about the workplace citizenship skills necessary for the effective functioning of organization. The workplace citizenship skills make a professional part of the organization which increases job satisfaction and hence, the overall productivity of organization. The aspect of public health cannot be separated from care provided by a nurse. Therefore, social service is the integral component of a nurse. Effective communication and team work are both inter related. In a multidisciplinary team, effective communication, collaboration, good team spirit and flexibility between team members improves job satisfaction. In all professional fields, communication is necessary for transferring ideas. Similarly, in nursing verbal as well nonverbal communication has a vital role to play. Miscommunication can interrupt the flow of information and can result in medical errors caused by misinterpretation of the situation. Development and display high degree of social responsibility, transfer of effective communication and good spirit of teamwork has profound influence on achieving the organizational citizenship skills.

References hanging indent

ANA- see American Nurses Association

American Nurses Association. (2010). Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. Washington, USA: Author.

http://www.nursingworld.org/mainmenucategories/ethicsstandards/codeofethicsfornurses/code-of-ethics.pdf

Dwyer, J. (2012). Communication in today’s workplace. (9th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.

Riley, J., Beal, J. (2010). Public service: Experienced nurses’ views on social and civic responsibility.Nursing Outlook, 58(3), 142-147.Retrieved from

http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/10.1016/j.outlook.2010.02.158

Wray-Lake, L., & Syvertsen, A.K. (2011). The developmental roots of social responsibility in childhood and adolescence. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134(1), 11-25. doi: 10.1002/cd.308

Yun, S., Cox, J., Sims, H.P., & Salam, S. (2007). Leadership and Teamwork: The effects of leadership and job satisfaction on team citizenship. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 2(3), 171-193. Retrieved from http://www.regentuniversity.org/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss3/yun/YunCoxSimsSalam_Vol2Iss3.pdf

Mehrabian, A 2012,Nonverbal communication,UCLA, Aldine Atherton, Chicago.

References

http://www.nursetogether.com/why-communication-in-the-nursing-profession-is-important