Adapting Civility Education in an Academic-Practice Partnership

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Incivility results in nurse burnout, decreased job performance, and decreased patient safety. Leaders of an academic-practice partnership developed educational activities promoting organizational civility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this article is to describe an educational activity about civility that was transitioned to a virtual platform and participants' comfort engaging in and responding to incivility. METHOD: Face-to-face education was converted to a synchronous online event, supporting 75 nurses, nursing students, and other health care professionals in attendance. Activities consisted of cognitive rehearsal techniques, breakout rooms, simulation videos, group debriefs, and panel discussions delivered via Zoom and Mentimeter software. RESULTS: Workplace Civility Index results were significantly different from pretest to post-test. Seventy-two percent of participants were not comfortable gossiping about others, but only 30% were comfortable responding to incivility. CONCLUSION: Promoting civility awareness through a virtual education platform using cognitive rehearsal techniques and reflection can provide support for current and future nurses.