Abstract
The purpose of this presentation is to share our story of co-designing, producing and testing of an interactive resource to promote individual and team well-being and effectiveness in clinical practice. As we emerge from the pandemic, the spotlight in global healthcare is focused on well-being and healthy workplace cultures. According to Saville (2021) stress and burnout in the workplace leads to staff moral distress and Hinderer et al. (2014) contend it is having a negative impact on patient safety and quality care. The impact extends to recruitment and retention of the health and social care workforce (Buchan et al. 2020). West et al. (2020) charge leaders with making nurses’ well-being a priority. It is within this context of professional well-being, that we embarked on a journey in 2020 to work collaboratively with healthcare professionals to develop a resource to support well-being in practice. Drawing on our expertise in storytelling and practice development we co-designed the prototype resource with eight nurses working in community settings in Phase 1. The initial prototype CAKE (Creating connections, Attending to what’s important, Keeping Connected, Enabling and empowering) had seven slices. The slices would lead teams through a process of creating a safe space for sharing stories of practice; storytelling using creative means such as modelling, drawing, painting, reflecting in nature; reflecting and action planning and; evaluation (Dickson and MacDonald 2023). There were three aims in Phase 2 of the project. Firstly, drawing on Hardiman and Dewing’s (2014) Critical Ally model of facilitation, we developed 17 clinical leaders to become facilitators of CAKE. Facilitators were prepared and supported to implement CAKE with 130 health and social care practitioners, and we used multiple, creative methods of data collection to test initial feasibility of CAKE. In 2022 a digital version of CAKE was created to be freely available to teams https://www.listenupstorytelling.co.uk/welcome-to-cake/. We believe the uniqueness of CAKE is two-fold: 1) its intention to embed well-being practices into the everyday work of teams and 2) its use of storytelling. Within this oral presentation, we propose that CAKE’s potential as a leadership strategy can be embedded in everyday practice to develop healthy workplace environments. Within this presentation we will give an overview of the resource, and insight into the animations and videos that demonstrate the process in each slice of CAKE. We will share the findings of the evaluation and give participants the opportunity to interact directly with CAKE by engaging directly in the online resource. Delegates will have the opportunity to experience the potential power of storytelling to uncover the hidden elements of workplace culture that impact on well-being.
Notes
References: Buchan, J., Ball, J., Nihar Shembavnekar ,N. and Charlesworth, A. (2020) for The Health Foundation. Building the NHS nursing workforce in England: Workforce pressure points. https://tinyurl.com/4u48hksf
Dickson, C. and MacDonald, K. (2023). Embedding storytelling in practice through CAKE – a recipe for team well-being and effectiveness. International Practice Development Journal, Vol. 13. Issue 1. Article 3 https://doi.org/10.19043/ipdj.131.003
Hardiman, M. and Dewing, J. (2017) Critical Ally and Critical Friend: stepping stones to facilitating practice development. International Journal of Practice Development, Vol. 4. Issue 1. Article 3 https://doi.org/10.19043/ipdj.41.003
Hinderer, K. A., VonRueden, K. T., Friedmann, E., McQuillan, K. A., Gilmore, R., Kramer, B. and Murray, M. (2014). Burnout, compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and secondary traumatic stress in trauma nurses. Journal of trauma nursing. Journal of the Society of Trauma Nurses, Vol. 21. No 4. pp.160–169. https://doi.org/10.1097/JTN.000000000000005
Saville C (ed).(2021). Evidence Brief 19. University of Southampton. [Retrieved from: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/450033/2/21_06]]
West, M., Bailey, S., Williams, E. (2020). The courage of compassion: Supporting nurses and midwives to deliver high-quality care. The King’s Fund. [Retrieved from: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/courage-compassion-supporting-nurses-midwives]
Sigma Membership
Omega Xi
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Work Environment, Healthy Workplace, Organizational Culture, Storytelling, Technical Innovations
Recommended Citation
Dickson, Caroline A.W. and MacDonald, Kath, "CAKE: Our Story of the Development of a Resource to Develop Healthy Workplace Cultures" (2026). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 58.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2024/presentations_2024/58
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Year
2024
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-02-19
CAKE: Our Story of the Development of a Resource to Develop Healthy Workplace Cultures
Washington, DC, USA
The purpose of this presentation is to share our story of co-designing, producing and testing of an interactive resource to promote individual and team well-being and effectiveness in clinical practice. As we emerge from the pandemic, the spotlight in global healthcare is focused on well-being and healthy workplace cultures. According to Saville (2021) stress and burnout in the workplace leads to staff moral distress and Hinderer et al. (2014) contend it is having a negative impact on patient safety and quality care. The impact extends to recruitment and retention of the health and social care workforce (Buchan et al. 2020). West et al. (2020) charge leaders with making nurses’ well-being a priority. It is within this context of professional well-being, that we embarked on a journey in 2020 to work collaboratively with healthcare professionals to develop a resource to support well-being in practice. Drawing on our expertise in storytelling and practice development we co-designed the prototype resource with eight nurses working in community settings in Phase 1. The initial prototype CAKE (Creating connections, Attending to what’s important, Keeping Connected, Enabling and empowering) had seven slices. The slices would lead teams through a process of creating a safe space for sharing stories of practice; storytelling using creative means such as modelling, drawing, painting, reflecting in nature; reflecting and action planning and; evaluation (Dickson and MacDonald 2023). There were three aims in Phase 2 of the project. Firstly, drawing on Hardiman and Dewing’s (2014) Critical Ally model of facilitation, we developed 17 clinical leaders to become facilitators of CAKE. Facilitators were prepared and supported to implement CAKE with 130 health and social care practitioners, and we used multiple, creative methods of data collection to test initial feasibility of CAKE. In 2022 a digital version of CAKE was created to be freely available to teams https://www.listenupstorytelling.co.uk/welcome-to-cake/. We believe the uniqueness of CAKE is two-fold: 1) its intention to embed well-being practices into the everyday work of teams and 2) its use of storytelling. Within this oral presentation, we propose that CAKE’s potential as a leadership strategy can be embedded in everyday practice to develop healthy workplace environments. Within this presentation we will give an overview of the resource, and insight into the animations and videos that demonstrate the process in each slice of CAKE. We will share the findings of the evaluation and give participants the opportunity to interact directly with CAKE by engaging directly in the online resource. Delegates will have the opportunity to experience the potential power of storytelling to uncover the hidden elements of workplace culture that impact on well-being.
Description
Our journey developing a digitised resource that uses storytelling to develop healthy workplace cultures. This interactive session introduces CAKE (Creating connections, Attending to what’s important, Keeping Connected, Enabling and empowering) and gives participants the opportunity to engage with a range of interesting, useful creative resources.