Organizational Culture and Values Introduction Nagelkerk (2005), states that organizational culture refers to the main beliefs, shared feelings, and traditions of the firm. This author believes that the culture of an organization plays an important role of promoting excellence within the firm by shaping employees’ and managers’ behaviors. He further asserts that organizational culture helps in determining the manner in which people respond to different situations within the institution. Similarly, values in an organization refer to the important building blocks within the company that act to motivate behavior and emotional responses to situations. The purpose of this assignment is to examine how the values of an organization align with those of the nurse to promote excellence within the company. It further investigates how nursing professionals in a firm may use effective communication to promote collaboration, valuable problem solving techniques, and overcome challenges at their work place.

Alignment between organizational and personal values In any organization, it is important that the values of the employees should align with those of the organization to ensure that activities there in are successful. Similarly, the alignment between the values of an organization and the values of the nurse impact nurse engagement and patient outcomes in the daily practice of a nurse. For example, a research study by Molte (2007) states that the main duty of a nurse is to promote health and healing to patients in any health institution. Equally, such an organization identifies with core values such as dignity, equality, full patient recovery, and systems outcomes. On the other hand, nurses in an organization also identify with core values such as effective practice, health promotion, offering satisfactory services to their clients, and upholding human dignity while offering such services.

Alignment between organizational and personal values The alignment between the values of the nurse and the values of an organization provides an appropriate environment in which the nurse can effectively provide health services to the patients. This factor also ensures that the nurse is able to practice his career effectively without any interference, with the main aim of offering better treatment services to clients. The nurse is able to use the best method of practice to clients in the organization since the institution encourages the health provider to use his knowledge in promoting effective medical aid to patients in the organization (Molter,2007). While providing health services to patients, the nurse will ensure that he offer high quality services that are cost effective to the institution and the patients can afford similar services. Many health institutions allow nurses to practice diversity in their areas of specialization and also recognize the fact that patients hail from diverse regions hence require varied degrees of attention.

Importance of effective communication techniques at the work place Every person agrees that effective communication is a key factor in any area of work. In nursing profession, employees use techniques of effective communication to overcome challenges at work and to attain appropriate results (Smolensky & Goudreau, 2013). Despite the fact that a nurse is expected to be an expert in providing health services, there are instances when an individual professional is faced with a situation that is beyond his or her capability. During such times, the nurse employs the use of effective communication to consult his superiors who in turn share helpful knowledge that he uses to overcome the challenges at work.

Importance of effective communication techniques at the work place Effective communication techniques also encourage collaboration within an organization by making it possible for professionals to share responsibilities and knowledge for proper patient care. Health practitioners should be ready to freely transfer and acquire knowledge from one another with the aim of making sure that they provide quality services to patients and their families. Effective communication is also seen as an avenue for promoting collaboration between nurses and patients in an institution (Molter,2007 ). It makes it possible for a nurse to work closely with the patient in order to find the most successful way of helping the patient to achieve the desired health outcomes. The nurse is able to obtain medical history and other experiences through collaboration with the patient, making it possible for the nurse to devise a proper method of dealing with the client.

Importance of effective communication techniques at the work place Communication leads to acquisition of knowledge and being informed of situations that a nurse would not have known were it not due to effective communication. Such circumstance help the nurse to make the right decisions when attending to a client so that the client is satisfied. For example, the nurse may consult a colleague about a given client in the institution so as to obtain the right medical history, especially in a case where the patient is not ready to talk about his or her medical past. In such a situation, effective communication will enable the nurse and the patient to reach an amicable agreement on what type of medication and treatment procedures to use (Sieckert & Lindeke, 2005). The nurse may then decide to introduce anew drug, continue with the old one, or just buy a different type of medication that would be effective in resolving the problems of the patient. Similarly, the can decide to change the method of approach for the client in order to improve patient experience and outcomes

Example of organizational and professional alignment of values The values of the organization I work for encourage the nurses to be diverse in their practices. Similarly, my values as a nurse are embedded on the knowledge of diversity. I believe that patients are different and may expect different kinds of treatment. This alignment between my values and those of the organization became handy one day when I was dealing with a patient who had different but staunch religious values and beliefs from mine. In this case, the client wanted to be observed and treated by a professional who professed the same faith, unfortunately there was none in our organization. Therefore, I counseled the client and used my values of diversity and ensured that I handled her according to her needs and expectations without showing any biasness. In the end, the patient recovered fully and has since believed that there is no institution like out hospital. The patient received the best care possible and went home very satisfied.

Conclusion Organizational culture defines how professionals behave within the institution while organizational values are the building blocks in a company that play the role of motivating and shaping employees behaviors. However, it is important for the values of employees and those of the organization be synchronized so that they lead to effective decision making and proper patient outcomes. On the other hand, professionals must make use of effective communication techniques in order to promote collaboration and successful decision making among individuals. Nurses must ensure that they uphold the values of the organization in order to enable client receive the best health services from the institution

References Sieckert, A. & Lindeke, L. (2005). Nurse-Physician Workplace Collaboration. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 10 No. 1, Manuscript 4. Molter, N. (2007). AACN Protocols for practice: creating healing environments. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Learning Smolensky, M. & Goudreau, K. (2013). Health policy and advanced practice nursing: impact and implications. New York, NY: Springer