A survey approach to assess the work and learning environment and stimulate informed change within the individual departments of an academic health center

Creating a psychologically safe and supportive environment is important for everyone who works and learns within an academic health center (AHC) as well as important to AHC overall success. Recognizing a need to better understand the strengths and areas for improvement in an AHCs environment, we developed and fielded an environment survey tailored to our many student, resident, postdoctoral researcher, staff, and faculty constituencies. This paper outlines the methodological and practical considerations and outcomes in developing and deploying the survey, including information on how it was received and the activities it subsequently stimulated. Three elements were central to our efforts: (a) analyzing and reporting findings at the individual department, center, and learner group level, where individuals directly experience the environment day-to-day, (b) characterizing the environment through three core dimensions of peoples experiences, which were perceiving that the department strives to be supportive; feeling embraced, appreciated, and supported within the environment; and feeling accepted in ones beliefs, and (c) prioritizing the dissemination of findings to all members of the community. We provide our questionnaire and outline the findings report design, a document received favorably by departments and their leaders. All of these documents can be adapted by other AHCs aiming to assess their environments, learn where to target interventions, while also monitoring progress.