Forming an understanding of fatigue and burnout on the job of delivering commodities cross-country is the focus herein. The discoveries from research conducted on fatigue have provided insight into additional concerns regarding the health of humanity. The process and development of how fatigue relates to the personal self when working under conditions of exertion are very important.
When driving over-the-road (OTR) cross-country under a tight delivery schedule period I had stressful experiences. For example, there was the stress coming from a lack of ample rest affecting how alert a mind could be. The amount of sleep was about 1-2 hours at a time with a few of the loads, while frequently a 4-5 hour period was what my body preferred to feel alert and awake. When a person only gets a couple hours of sleep in a day, it could catch up on them quickly and with tremendous impact both mentally and physically.
Humans need to get a good amount of rest in order to keep themselves stable and recharged physically. Relaxation becomes an essential part of the stress avoidance necessary to evade the dilemma of fatigue in life. When driving tractor-trailer during the nineties, I had learned from experience what fatigue does within the mental process.
Mentally Strained
It was difficult to back a truck up to a warehouse dock when tired mentally; including the physical exhaustion does not help. For example, backing up to the dock at a warehouse requires stepping on the clutch pedal of the tractor, which is greater than the pressure of one in general automobiles. Driving a tractor-trailer is different from a car in so many ways, and one example is the off tracking where the semi wheel track runs off a different track than the trailer. Having ...
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...t or the height of achievement we gain and share within the surrounding realm of work and personal life.
References
Bgauntt, StudyMode.com. (2012, 05). “Fatigue” Retrieved 05, 2012, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Fatigue-1003036.html
Nauert, R. (2009). “Mental and Physical Fatigue Linked”. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 3, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/02/25/mental-and-physical-fatigue-linked/4343.html
Ohio State University. (2012, November 14). “Discovery could lead to faster diagnosis for some chronic fatigue syndrome cases”. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 4, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121114171708.htm
University of Calgary. (2007, December 19). “Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome A Physical Or Psychological Affliction?”. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 4, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071218115629.htm
Inadequate rest which results in fatigue has major implications on the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care. Nurses often work three to four 12 hour shift a week without taking any breaks while on duty. They often have difficult workloads and challenges which can take a toll and impact patient care. I will be taking a look at nurse fatigue and the impact it has on the nurse’s wellbeing, work, and patient care.
In the recent past, nursing has come to the forefront as a popular career amongst students across the globe. The demand for nurses has kept increasing gradually over the years. In fact, the number of registered nurses does not meet the demand of the private and public health sector. This phenomenon has resulted in a situation where the available registered nurses have to work extra hours in order to meet the patients’ needs. With this in mind, the issue of nurse fatigue has come up as a common problem in nursing. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), nurse fatigue is “a feeling of tiredness” that penetrates a persons physical, mental and emotional realms limiting their ability to function normally. Fatigue does not just involve sleepiness as has been assumed before. It involves utter exhaustion that is not easily mitigated through rest. When nurses ignore the signs of fatigue, they risk the development of chronic fatigue and other health problems that may not be easily treated. Additionally, fatigue may cause nurses to lose more time at work as they may have to be away from work for several days to treat it. The issue of nurse fatigue has permeated the nursing profession to the extent of causing errors in the work performed by nurses. Fatigue causes a decrease in a nurse’s ability to make accurate decisions for themselves and their patients. It is therefore important to find ways to curb nurse fatigue such that it is no longer a problem. Nurse fatigue is a danger to the patients, organizations and to the nurses themselves and must be mitigated adequately.
Physical symptoms can include, but not limited to: insomnia, increased illness, loss of appetite, and chronic fatigue. Psychological symptoms are symptoms of depression, guilt, feelings of worthlessness, anger, tension, isolation, pessimism, and anxiety (Carter, 2013). APA (2007) found that around ½ of Americans say that stress negatively impacts their professional and personal lives, 1/3rd of Americans have difficulties managing work and family responsibilities, and 54% of Americans have stated noticing a correlation of increased stress causing them to fight with those who are intimately close to them. In addition, 8% of Americans connected burnout from work as the cause of their divorce or separation. Experiancing difficulty falling asleep at night due to stress has impacted 48% of Americans, and over 50 million prescriptions were filled in 2008 for sleeping aids. Burnout appeared to cause havoc in at least 3/4th of working Americans. In comparison the leading cause of death of heart disease (covering all heart problems combined) causes 1 out of every 4 Americans deaths or 25% (Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Burnout can lead to physical cardiovascular problems and people
Upon concluding my neurobiology course, I spent some time reflecting on what I've learned about the nervous system and its functions. I thought about how much progress has been made in the last couple of decades alone in defining and understanding certain aspects of neuronal functions, and must admit that I am very impressed. However, there is still so much we don't know about this area, and nowhere has this notion proved more true than in my exploration of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As will soon be clear, this disease is highly debilitating and can greatly lower the quality of an individual's life, yet to date there are no definite findings about the etiology of this illness. But even more importantly, this illness shows the importance of understanding and being able to assess the different workings of our nervous system and its complex nature. Unfortunately, the study of this same disease also shows the human inability to yet do so.
Mood Disorders: Tired? Depressed? Check your Thyroid, May 1994. Paula Dranov. 18 March 2005. http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/p51-thyr.html
Fatigue is a growing concern and issue in the aviation industry. Although it has been for some time, recently mounting workloads and stress have factored into creating an escalating problem with real casualties and repercussions. “Pilot fatigue, heavy workloads… may have contributed to an air ambulance crashing into the sea at night during a medical mission…” (Crash Blamed 2006 p.31). Fatigue is an “insidious” condition that affects a pilot in a way that might make him feel justified in his decisions. (Wald 2008 C3). Without realizing the effects of sleepiness and stress, pilots often times make the wrong decision, believing it to be the right one, and suffering severe consequences, such as: passenger injures, crew injuries or even death, which occurs more often than not.
... satisfaction. Unfulfilled expectations or dream, releasing uncomfortable feeling and anxiety due to non-satisfaction of life. Fear and uncertainty give out uneasiness and distress about future uncertainties. Eating disorder or physical constraints that causes physical exhaustion come from lack of good exercise and diet strategies. Eating light and avoiding sugars help increasing performance and lessen stress. Having a light meal, eat right and doing exercise regularly with getting plenty of rest will avoid the unhealthy lifestyle. Disorganization of work and procrastination make the important work being delay and doing task last minute give a big depression.
“The term burnout was coined in the 1970s by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. He used it to describe the consequences of severe stress and high ideals in helping professions” (“Depression: What is burnout?”, 2017). It is a state of being physically, mentally or emotionally exhausted for a long period of time. For example, Human Service Professionals often end up being burned out, exhausted and empty by sometimes sacrificing themselves for others. They work hard and try their best to make their clients feel better but often forget to take care of themselves. They work with individuals, familes, and staff members in environments that are complex and physically and emotionally demanding. Burnout is often confused with stress and
Research has depicted burnout in professional fields of teaching, business, doctors, nurses, occupational therapy, dieticians, care providers, police officers and professional counselors (Chang, 2009; Cheug & Chow, 2011; Edwards & Dirette, 2010; Gingras, de Jonge, & Purdy, 2010; Law, 2010; Lee, Cho, Kissinger, & Ogle, 2010; Loo, 2004; Wilczek-Ruzyczka, 2011). According to Cordoba, Tamayo, Gonzalez, Martinez, Rosales, and Barbato (2011), high levels of stress effects much of the working population. Professional burnout has been & associated with work ability, mental health, perfectionism, and emotional regulations (Aloe, Amo, & Shanahan, 2014). In addition, professionals who are more involved with their job duties are more likely to experience burnout than those who are detached from their work (Speakes- Lewis, 2011). Burnout is often found in jobs that are demanding and within the helping professions (Romani & Ashkar, 2014; Schaufeli, Leiter, & Maslach, 2008).
“Burnout” as described by Maslach and Jackson (1986) in Olinske & Hellman (2016) is the emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment which arises in individuals who perform human service related work (p. 3). Job related stressors, which have the tendency to transform into to exhaustion, which can further mutate into depersonalization, which is exhibited as cynicism. This situation, if left unimproved, will cause an individual to begin to experience a lack of personal accomplishment and ultimately cause burnout (Olinske & Hellman, 2016, p. 3). Additionally, “research by Schaufeli and Enzmann (1998) discovered other demands, such as heavy workload, time pressure, and conflicts related to an individual’s positions supporting human service organization could be directly connected with indicators of burnout” (Olinske & Hellman, 2016, p.
Stress in the workplace can have an effect not only on the safety measures employees engage in while on the clock, but can also affect how an individual behaves outside of the workplace, in fact, it is not uncommon for an individual to experience accidents and injuries outside of the workplace that can be linked back to the stresses they experienced not only in the workplace but other stresses concerning one’s employment (Macik-Frey et al, 2007).
Burnout has been studied throughout various fields utilizing all three of the MBI inventories. Though work provides a meaningful structure to life, it can cause stress for many due to multiple factors that are present on the job. Loera, Converso, and Viotti (2014) indicated that work related stress is a factor that affects burnout. Likewise, when stress it not managed properly among workers and become long term burnout can occur (Devereux, Hastings, & Noone, 2009). There are various work stress models that describe how workers are affected by stress on the
Many people feel like they’ll be able to overcome their tiredness but truthfully you cannot fight your sleepiness especially while you are out on the road. Others believe that once they get on the road they’ll be able to wake up but that’s not always the case. Instead of pulling over their vehicles, many people chose to continue to drive while they are tired. This can be an extremely dangerous routine to adopt. According to researchers, many of the fatal crashes showed that the drivers were not getting enough sleep and were up longer than they need to be. Drivers that pulled over and took a nap were less likely to end up in a fatal accident (OH Editorial Staff). Some drivers also said that they didn’t feel too comfortable pulling over on the side of the road to take a nap because they felt it wasn’t safe (Yee 232). This can be true in some cases but people that feel this way would have to ask, would they rather take the chance of seriously injuring themselves?
Stress is one of the factors that instigate fatigue and exhaustion. When you have too much on your plate, the chances of you getting easily stressed out are increased exponentially. As much as you possibly can, reduce stress to the barest minimum. Make sure that you have your day planned out, arrange everything around you and know what everything is and what it does. Organization is one of the keys to a long and healthy
Everyday, there are workers who come home from their jobs with a high amount of health issues. Headaches, aching muscles, exhaustion, and many more health issues have workers wondering why this is happening. All of these symptoms can be linked to stress in the workplace. Job stress has become more of a problem than ever before. Numerous studies show that job stress is the major source of stress for American adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades (“Workplace Stress,” 2004).