Suicide tendencies in healthcare workers
Alexander describes that there is a high rate of suicide attempts in healthcare workers than in any other profession. The workers who commit suicide are alcoholics or they may have mental disorder or stress, they take this step because they are experiencing depression, anxiety, or irritability. The study speculated that female healthcare workers are more suicide prone than male workers and they commit suicide at the beginning and mid level of their career because of their dual role duties, as they have to perform their duties as healthcare worker as well as family providers, they have higher pressure of work from their workplace and from their family which gives them distress or depression and become
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The study shows that some dentists feel frustration, fear, and discomfort when interacting with patients, and some dentists feel stress with payment problems and dissatisfaction from the patient regarding treatment. Some dentists see themselves as second class providers and feel that they don’t have the same status and prestige as physicians, which cause them to take stress and feel depression and commit suicide. Some early signs of committing suicide by healthcare workers are adverse changes can be seen in their behavior or personality, they get addict of alcohol or substance abuse, lack of confidence in their personality, when they have to work in long hours with decreased productivity, decreasing interest in the family or outside world of their workplace, hostility and aggressiveness can be seen in their behavior. These are some of the signs or symptoms which show that the person is not satisfied with his job; he is stressed or moving towards committing suicide …show more content…
The studies suggest that the job retention for the healthcare professionals is based on different factors including job satisfaction, job characteristics, job stresses, providing opportunities for the development of the professionals, providing positive work environment, flexible timings for job shift, maintaining good interpersonal relationships and good communications, give benefits, and provide trainings. Healthcare professionals face lack of these factors in their job and then they decide to leave their job. When an employee leaves the job, then the workload could become increase for other workers, which can affect patient care and increases the stress for other healthcare workers due to workload. Shi discussed that healthcare workers and nurses often complain about their job role and work stress and tell that they have higher workload than any other profession and they have to deal with different problems including physical and mental problems, which is the main reason of higher rate of stress and depression in their field, that is the reason they leave their jobs to avoid anxiety, frustration and depression
Diane: A Case of Physician Assisted Suicide. Diane was a patient of Dr. Timothy Quill, who was diagnosed with acute myelomonocytic leukemia. Diane overcame alcoholism and had vaginal cancer in her youth. She had been under his care for a period of 8 years, during which an intimate doctor-patient bond had been established.
Employee job satisfaction is also an issue faced by Coastal Medical Center’s staff. It is important the employees enjoy their job so that performance will be efficient and of higher quality. When employees are satisfied and happy with their job, performance improves and it becomes apparent to the patients. It was also mentioned that the staff does not have a chance to be heard b...
, the amount of suicides per year is very high and so far, the treatments for mental health don’t work on all patients. Finally, depression results in a decline of a person’s work ethic and ability to properly work, and it would be
College students have concerns about writing an essay incorrectly, now be able to pass your class in an efficient matter by learning the effective way to write your essay. In “why do doctors commit suicide?” residency student are getting dangerous consequences by the pressure of becoming a doctor. Due to the fact that stress has made doctors emotional, thinking that all medical students are alone and have no support on how to release the pressure of being a doctor. Therefore, the intended audience and argument of the author was for doctors and residency medical students to know they are not alone in dealing with pressure of emotions. In addition, having the students know they are able develop relief from stress, since a “tired and depressed doctor who is an island of self-doubt simply isn’t as likely to improve the outcomes of his or her patients” (SINHA, 2014, para.12). The argument of the editorial is not all rhetorically successful because of the limited and ineffective use of ethos, logos, and pathos in editorial, nevertheless the main intended audience of residency medical student was correct by the author.
Physician-assisted suicide is legal in three of the fifty states in America: Oregon, Montana, and Washington. Getting approval for physician-assisted suicide in Oregon is a long process with many guidelines and restrictions. The patient must be terminally ill, with little hope for treatment and less than six months to live. It is required that they are a resident of Oregon, and at least 18 years of age. They must also be able to communicate their own wishes. Once the initial decision is made by the patient, he or she must make two oral requests for a prescription of lethal drugs to their attending physician, or the doctor that has initial care of that patient. These two requests should be made no less than 15 days apart, and a the patient must sign a written request in the presence of at least two witnesses. Once the forms are signed, the attending physician, as well as another consulting physician, will review the patient’s case and verify the diagnosis and prognosis. If either of the two physicians believes the patient is being influenced by a psychological or psychiatric disease, they must refer the patient for a psychological examination. If the patient is declared mentally fit to make this decision, the attending physician has an obligation to offer alternatives to the Death with Dignity Act, including hospice care, comfort, and pain management. Should the patient decide to proceed with physician-assisted suicide, the attending physician is required to recommend that the patient notify their next-of-kin of their request for lethal drugs, although it is not required (Oregon 1).
There has been very little literature presented on Physician Assistant Suicide and its relationship particularly to psychology, PAS is my opinion is in fact a psychological issue. Psychology by definition is a discipline that studies both the human mind and behavior and seeks to understand and provide explanation pertaining to thought, emotion, and behavior (Cherry, 2011). Applications of psychology can range from mental health, self- health, and a myriad of areas that can affect health and daily life (Cherry, 2011).
In conclusion, the above research analysis explained many contributing factors to stress and burnout and its effect on performance. As expected from prior studies, job satisfaction has an effect on productivity and/or burnout. Burnout in US nurses has been linked to Philippine nurses, despite a difference in health-care systems. Gender has also proven to be a contributing factor to stress. Women have a significant level of stress compared to men due to additional work of housework and childcare. Women also are linked to low levels of emotional exhaustion with co-worker support. Finally, perception organizational support has been linked to emotional exhaustion, but not solely due to the organization. Hopefully, organizations will continue to adopt stress reducing programs and recognize that it has many contributing factors.
However, upon securing a job, they find that things on the ground are not as they had expected them to be and this results in some of them deciding to leave the profession early. Research shows that turnovers within the nursing fraternity target person below the age of 30 (Erickson & Grove, 2011). The high turnover within the nursing fraternity results in a massive nurse shortage. This means that the nurses who decide to stay have to work for many hours resulting in exhaustion. A significant percent of nurses quitting their job sites exhaustion and discouragement as the reason that contributed to their decision. In one of the studies conducted on the issue of nurse turnover, 50% of the nurses leaving the profession argued that they felt saddened and discouraged by what they were unable to do for their patients (Erickson & Grove, 2011). When a nurse witness his/her patients suffering but cannot do anything because of the prevailing conditions he/she feels as if he/she is not realizing the reason that prompted him/her to join the nursing profession. The higher rate of nursing turnover is also affecting the quality of care nurses provide to
The prolonged shortage of skilled nursing personnel has been a serious concern to the healthcare industry, and this shortage has impacted the quality of care delivery. In addition, nursing turnover has also exacerbated the problem of nursing shortage. Nursing shortage has been blamed on many nurses retiring and less younger nurses joining the occupation. There is also an increase in life expectancy (baby boomers) leading an increase in both physical and mental ailment with subsequent demand in nursing care. Nurses are also leaving nursing profession because of inadequate staffing, tense work environment, negative press about the profession, and inflexible work schedules. Even though nursing is a promising career and offers job security, the
The nursing profession has often been dubbed as the backbone of the healthcare system because nurses are first in line when it comes to the patient’s medical care. Hence, nursing quality is one of the major factors that affects the well-being of the patient. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are expected to possess the characteristics of caring and empathy towards their patients. However, when there is too much care for patients and too little for one’s self, a negative effect to the overall health of the caregiver may develop. Additionally, nursing work is seen to be strenuous and challenging due to its need for specialization, complexity, and requirement to handle emergency situations (Benoliel et al., 1990; Su, 1993). Nurses, in effect, may feel overworked, underappreciated, frustrated and emotionally exhausted. These stressors that healthcare providers undergo are described by different terms including compassion fatigue, caregiver burnout and other related issues. In this paper, the nature of compassion fatigue and caregiver burnout are first defined and discussed. The symptoms as well as the coping strategies for these phenomena are then explained.
Nurses Joe and Sarah have been working in a medical surgical unit that has been experiencing a nursing shortage, which has led to an increase in the workload. Sarah has been feeling the physical effects of the stress and feels there is a lack of management support, while Joe experiences some feelings of being overwhelmed, but tries to use it as learning experiences. Joe has developed positive methods of coping, while Sarah is quickly heading towards burnout. Implications and Conclusions The information provided in the literature has great implications for practice in many units, including the writers. It is with great hopes that the research published can be presented to the committees on the unit in hopes that some of the workloads can be decreased to help with staffing and retention rates.
The mental health assessment is a crucial part in everyday nursing care as it evaluates an individual’s mental condition to assess for risk factors of mental illnesses and provide optimal care and treatment. Mental health is described as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.” (CDC) If the patient not mentally healthy, they can develop mentally illnesses, which can affect treatment and the disease process of physical ailments because without mental health a person cannot be completely healthy. “Suicide Risk Assessment in High Risk Adolescents” is a nursing article that outlines suicide risk factors and prevention strategies for assist nurses in performing mental health assessments. Suicide, the act of
Factors such as, heavy workloads, stress, job dissatisfaction, frequent medical errors, and intention of leaving the job are all common for nurses to experience, especially during the nursing shortage crisis. Not only do the nurses suffer during a shortage, but the patients ' health outcomes suffer even more. For instance, there are higher rates of infectious diseases and adverse patient outcomes, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays, failure to rescue, and mortality. As a result, this leads to higher re-admission rates for patients. Furthermore, high patient-to-nurse ratios cause heavy workloads due to an inadequate supply of nurses, an increased demand for nurses, a reduction in staffing and an increase in overtime, and a shortened length of stay for patients. Without the heavy workloads that nurses have to endure on a daily basis, there would more time for nurses to communicate more effectively with physicians, insurance companies, and patients and their families. Those heavy workloads are the result of hospitals reducing the nursing staff and implementing mandatory overtime policies just to meet unexpectedly high demands. Unfortunately, the nursing shortage has affected nurses ' mental and physical health. For example, the most common health concerns for nurses include cardiovascular health, occupational injuries and illnesses, and emotional and physical exhaustion. Therefore, safe-staffing ratios/levels have to become the main
Understaffing is one of the prominent problems that hospitals and healthcare facilities are facing. Hospitals and healthcare facilities argue that they do not have enough budget to hire nurses to care for patients. While some say that there are not enough nurses here in the United States to hire. Also, hospital administrators think that hiring extra workers is not economically right. However, nurses and staffs disagree. When facilities do not have enough staff, it is the workers, especially the nurses that are having a hard time. They are the one that are suffering from overworking and pressure which leads to mistakes that will affect the hospital’s reputation and patient’s health. Nurses are here to care and nurture a patient and therefore
Suresh believes the reason people commit suicide is due to the lack of sensitization. Signs of depression are one of the many dangers a person may commit suicide. Physicians are not providing and assisting those with mental illnesses. Ninety percent of those who commit suicide experience mental illnesses, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Suicide is the most common death in the United States because of this issue with mental illnesses. Furthermore, mental illnesses not only causes suicide, but also with a significant role of others.