The problem in the previous paper addresses whether or not short staffing in a hospital setting contributes to an increased number of nurse burnout. The focus of my groups work is to identify relevant causes that contribute to a nurse burnout and the interventions with providing evidence based research. The significance of this issue is that nurse burnout has contributed to numerous adverse affects in a hospital environment. When a unit is short staffed it creates a nurse more stress and responsibilities that contributes to participating in workarounds which are “short cuts”. If the nursing interventions are not done per procedure then there can be associated complications. “According to the Michigan Nurses Association, short staffing is connected …show more content…
“This literature review explores the effect that nurse staffing patterns have on the frequency of medical errors, fatigue, and nurse burnout (Garrett, 2008, p.1191)”. A concept that is relevant to this study would include nurse sensitive concepts. Houser stated that nurse sensitive concepts include but are not limited to burnout, medication errors as well as patient falls (Houser, 2015). All these concepts are relevant in this one article which discusses studies that have been done to provide evidence based research. “Variables included total staff member work hours and nurse-sensitive outcome rates for CLIs, pressure ulcers, medication errors, falls and restraint application duration rates (ie, duration for use of mechanical restraints)(Garrett, 2008, p.1197).” The technique that was used in this research was the quantitative method. The text book defines quantitative research as “a traditional approach to research in which variables are identified and measured in a reliable and valid way” (Houser, 2015). This study that was conducted identified variables as stated above as well as collected data from diverse units of hospitals to analyze separately to measure the outcomes. The participants of this study included ninety five patient care units from ten adult acute care hospitals for this sample. The instrument used by the researcher was from an observational form that …show more content…
The first article did provide evidence, although it was quite difficult to find significant data in the second article. The first article supplies data that does link understaffed nursing units to increase number of negative patient outcomes. Since the second article did not provide an efficient amount of evidence I need to find another article that does provide statistics for the original question. The next step is to provide evidence based research on interventions that could limit the amount of cases related to nurse burnout. Two questions that would help guide the groups work would be 1. What interventions are relevant in reducing the nurse’s workload and responsibilities in order to prevent exhaustion that can lead to nurse burnout? 2. What interventions can be provided by the employer to introduce to nurses on ways to cope with stressful events as well as increased stress
The problem, as defined for my argument research paper, is that to cut costs, hospitals have been steadily increasing the number of patients nurses must care for. In many areas it's not uncommon for one nurse to have to assess, give medications to, and manage the care of as many as 12 patients. This puts tremendous strain on nurses. Many of the studies I have seen in my research indicate that a high ration of patients to nurses increases the rate of death or other poor outcomes for patients. It also leads to increased nurse burnout and higher turnover, though at this point I believe my paper will focus on patient outcomes.
A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that “annually approximately 1.7 million hospitalized patients acquire infections while being treated for other medical conditions, and more than 98,000 of these patients will die as a result of their acquired infection” (Cimiotti et al., 2012, p. 486). It was suggested that nursing burnout has been linked to suboptimal patient care and patient dissatisfaction. Also, the study shows that if the percentage of nurses with high burnout could be reduced to 10% from an average of 30%, approximately five thousand infections would be prevented (Cimiotti et al., 2012). In summary, increasing nursing staffing and reduction burnout in RNs is a promising strategy to help control urinary and surgical infections in acute care facilities (Cimiotti et al.,
It is imperative to discuss with nurses how they perceive staffing and how it relates to patient safety, quality of care, and if there are certain cares left undone due to staffing concerns. This article was chosen because nurse staffing is a massive issue in any nursing practice. The patient’s and other staff feel the devastation when the patient to nurse ratios are not precise. Working overtime produces exhausted nurses that cannot perform at their ideal productivity level. This results in poor patient outcomes, frustrated colleagues, and subpar work.
Nurses. They are such a vital part of any hospital and in any medical offices. Their main focus is on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they can recover to perfect health. But with the constant demand, shortage staff and need for nursing, help or hurting them. During my research, I found that some people agree that overworking nurses is okay because the hospital still thrives and that an overworked is just collateral damage. Other think that overworking nurses is wrong and something should be done to change the problem. In this paper, I will discuss effects of nurses being overworked back by research.
Burnout is a highly unusual type of stress disorder that is essentially characterized by emotional exhaustion, lack of empathy with patients, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishments. The nature of the work that healthcare practitioners perform predisposes them to emotional exhaustion. On the other hand, the lack of empathy towards patients is caused by the nurses feeling that they are underpaid and unappreciated. Numerous researches have associated burnout with the increasing rate of nurse turnover. This paper explores the causes of burnouts in nurses as well as what can be done to prevent the them.
In addition to concerns about the adequacy of the supply of nurses the financial impact of high turnover was startling. According to Jones (2005) Using the updated Nursing Turnover Cost Calculation Methodology, the per RN true cost of nurse turnover is calculated to be 1.2–1.3 times the RN annual salary. That estimate is derived from a retrospective, descriptive study of external RN turnover cost data at an acute care hospital with over 600 beds. The findings indicate that the three highest cost categories were vacancy, orientation and training and newly hired RN productivity. (as cited in Kooker & Kamikawa, C. 2011). For example, At the Queen’s Medical Center, the annual salary of an experienced RN is currently $91,520. Therefore, using the
One of the most serious issues in nursing, that can affect a nurses career is nursing burn- out. According to the article “Where have all the nurses gone”, current nurses that are practicing, report high rates of job dissatisfaction (which is part of burn out) and 1 of 5 nurses may quit nursing in the next 5 years (Dworkin, 2002). Burnout is associated with nurses not coming in to work, not feeling satisfied when doing their job, high turnover rates and a lack of commitment to the work (Katisfaraki, 2013). If a nurse becomes burned- out, they may not take care of their patients as well and could make mistakes with medication administration. A study performed in the United States by Dr. Jeannie Cimiottti, shows that hospitals with high burn-out rates among nurses have higher levels UTI’s, and surgical infections (World, 2012). Nursing burnout not only affects the nurse, but it also affects the patient, the nurses’ colleagues, and the nurses’ family; nursing burn out often leads to emotional exhaustion and depression, that can effect relations and communication between the nurse effected and the person they are communicating with. This paper will cover what burn-out is, who is susceptible to burn out, and treatment and prevent nursing burn out.
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
About 32% of RNs worked on-call hours (either paid or unpaid). When we consider all types of overtime, 60.1% of RNs worked at least one type of overtime among mandatory, voluntary, and on-call. About 16% of nurses actually worked more than 40 hours in a typical week. Among nurse injuries, verbal abuse (56.6%) and bruises or contusions (49.7%) are the two most frequently experienced nurse injuries. In total, 79.2% of nurses experienced one of these injuries during the past month. In regards to adverse patient events, medication errors (44.5%) and patient falls (38.2%) are the most frequently reported adverse patient events by nurses. Sixty-one percent of nurses perceived that patients in their unit experienced one of these adverse events during their hospital stay (Bae,
Thousands of nurses throughout the nation are exhausted and overwhelmed due to their heavy workload. The administrators do not staff the units properly; therefore, they give each nurse more patients to care for to compensate for the lack of staff. There are several reasons to why
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 atmosphere of the work environment is critically significant for both patients and nurses. It deeply influences the clinical related issues at different levels from the safety of patients to job satisfaction of the nurses. Work environment issues, such as nurse staffing, are strongly linked with patient outcomes. For example, if the nursing working environment is not convenient and comfortable for the nurses, that could result in more job dissatisfaction which ultimately might increase the probability of near misses and sentinel events such as medication
These articles have many similarities when discussing the issue of staffing shortages. For patients, their loved ones and the general population, they don’t understand the ramifications and strain that staffing shortages have on nurses. People expect and deserve complete, competent and safe care when they are patients. These articles bring to light all the struggles that nurses have to deal with. Nurses are fearful that they will make mistakes, will harm patients, and will harm themselves. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001; Martin, 2015) Overtime can be overwhelming and exhausting, which can lead to errors being made. (Bae, 2012; Erlen, 2001) These articles perceive that it may be beneficial for nurses, patients, and healthcare facilities to decrease the nurse-to-patient ratio, however, this option is not always
Several consequences of high nursing workload have been proven to hinder the quality of patient care. Carayon and Gurses’s research (2008) indicates that heavy workload can contribute to errors, shortcuts, guideline violations, and poor communication with physicians and other providers, thus compromising the quality and safety of patient care. In addition, the research not only implies that patients may not receive proper care, but also they can experience less satisfaction with
Happell, Martin, and Pinikahana (2007) also argue in their research that “despite the strength of discourse and debate in relation to stress and burnout in psychiatric nursing, limited research has been conducted in this area” (p. 40). Although a handful of studies (Cañadas et al., 2013, Dickinson and Wright, 2008; Happell, Martin, and Pinikahana, 2007, Ewers et al., 2001) agree that burnout reduces employee effectiveness which can compromise quality of care provided for the patient, there is still little research and support in this