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With the stress of the health care profession, it can be challenging to rally your energy or exude optimism on a daily basis. If you’re in an administrative or management role, you may notice signs of dwindling happiness among the staff. Things like arguments among colleagues, less camaraderie, or increased turnover rates may be clues to indicate your coworkers are in need of a morale boost.

The best way to tackle a slump in team morale is to head it off at the pass with positive changes. Recognizing the extra time and effort your nursing colleagues give to the job and providing them with opportunities to learn and grow in the profession are a couple of the ways to improve job satisfaction. Here, we’ll look at four other ways to boost morale in the workplace.

1. Allow time for a lunch break.

Studies indicate only one in five people step away from their job duties to take a lunch break. But following the same fast-paced routine day in and day out without a pause can drain your energy and your creativity. Kimberly Elsbach, a professor at the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management, told NPR , “We know that creativity and innovation happen when people change their environment, and especially when they expose themselves to a nature-like environment, to a natural environment.”

Encourage your nurses to take their lunch breaks and escape from the usual monotony of the day. They can head outside for a stroll around the block, order from a new restaurant, or sip on some antioxidant-rich green tea. Even just a few minutes a day can have mood-elevating effects and lead to a more positive work environment.

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2. Foster an atmosphere of caring among your coworkers.

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in your own life. However, if you can celebrate your colleagues’ milestones — a work anniversary, an engagement, a promotion, a birthday, etc. — you can foster an atmosphere where your fellow nurses feel valued. The gesture of making sure your employees and coworkers know they are treasured assets to the company will go a long way toward getting people excited about coming to work each day!

3. Offer free continuing education or professional development courses.

When budgets are tight, continuing education and professional development courses are often the first items to be slashed. But continuing education and professional development courses bolster the tools that nurses need to help their patients, and sometimes, the cost of these courses comes with hefty price tags. By offering free, educational opportunities or subsidizing a portion of an enrollment fee, you support your employees in their desires to improve their skill set, cultivate their professional passions, and accomplish their long-term goals—which leads to highly-trained, loyal employees and a more uplifting work setting for everyone.

4. Learn effective communication strategies.

“To help prevent morale issues in the workplace, leaders need to spend time communicating their vision to ensure that ‘everyone is on the same page,’” suggests Jeff Parke, author of a Linkedin article about low morale in health care.

Communicating a concise message is key to managing employee expectations and conveying practical productivity guidelines. Parke states that capable leaders will permit employees to discuss these messages either in-person or during designated staff meetings, where employees have the opportunity to express their opinions and ask questions.

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Allowing for feedback and the open exchange of ideas shows nurses that their thoughts and opinions matter when it comes to boosting morale in the workplace.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to boost workplace morale, so feel free to leave us a comment below.

Jennifer Lelwica Buttaccio
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