Burnout in nursing is a convoluted and significant matter that must be acknowledged and addressed to preserve the quality and longevity of the nursing profession. With varying definitions of the term, it becomes important to identify and understand the factors and dynamics that have bearing on the nurse’s intrapersonal beliefs, emotional well-being, and ultimately the patient care they provide. Once these components are recognized, it is just as imperative to offer potential resolutions to meet this challenge. Aside from simple, personal actions that the nurse can take, such as exercise and rest, there are certain measures that if fulfilled by the nursing leadership staff will hold substantial weight when it comes to contending with burnout. …show more content…
Burnout in critical care nursing has been a longstanding, serious yet under recognized issue that has recently been magnified due to the nursing shortage. The key components of burnout include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or detachment, and lack of personal accomplishment. These factors are closely interwoven and create a snowball effect which results in burnout. Emotional exhaustion stems from the stress placed on critical care nurses. Stress from patient acuity, heavy workload and responsibility, limited autonomy, ethical dilemmas, inadequate staffing ratios, and caring for patient’s families all contribute to emotional exhaustion (Epp, 2012, p. 26). In turn, emotional exhaustion triggers depersonalization which is a way for critical care nurses to cope. Finally, lack of personal accomplishment is achieved when the nurse cannot meet their inherent high standards and are unsupported by their colleagues and superiors (Epp, 2012, p. 28). To prevent and remedy burnout, Epp’s (2012) article suggests that nurse managers play an integral role by regulating staffing levels and encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition, they can foster a supportive work environment by participating in daily reports, establishing relationships with staff nurses to identify individual signs of stress, and instituting educational workshops. Critical care nurses are also encouraged to play an active role in combatting burnout by advocating for themselves and for their colleagues to institute personal measures such as rest, delegation, and stress management (Epp, 2012, p.
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Show MoreThe issues of nursing burnout and compassion fatigue are an important one in part, because of the ongoing nursing shortage across the united states. Per the American colleges of nursing “the U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of Registered Nurses (RN’s) that is expected to intensify as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows” (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017). The ACA fact sheet cites several reasons for this including; the increasing needs of an aging population, healthcare reform, decreased enrollment in nursing programs, shortages of nursing faculty, large portions of working nurses
Health Leaders Media lists seven strategies to reduce nurse burnout, including “stress reduction classes, create a space for relaxation, mentor and buddy programs, recognition and reward, manager involvement, training and education and counseling” (Hendren, 2010, para.8). Individual hospitals have taken actions to help combat burnout among nursing staff. At the St. Boniface Hospital in Manitoba, there is a research project being conducted called the Compassion Project, which includes “compassion and mindfulness meditation training and how it can affect brain anatomy and physiology, personal well-being, employee engagement and reduced burnout” (Miller et al, 2016,
Working in long-term care can be overwhelming. Imagine you are a new graduate nurse putting your new found knowledge and skills to practice for the first time. Your orientation lasted three days which is standard for nurse home orientation compared to hospital orientation that last approximately six to eight weeks for new grads. The shift has just begun and already you have a new admit, new found pressure ulcer to assess, a possible medication reaction, several new orders to take off and eight patients to document on for varying reasons. Feelings of frustration and confusion take over as you are the only nurse on the unit along with a Certified Medication Technician (CMT) and three Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) taking care of 47 patients. Ideal nurse-to-patient ratio continues to be a national issue in both the hospital and long-term care setting (LTC). In the LTC setting there is no official nurse-to-patient ratio; there is a suggested staff-to-patient ratio. This issue not only affects the new licensed nurses but the seasoned nurse as well. Recently, there has been controversial debates as to whether heavy workloads are detrimental to patients. The federal, state, and local government regulates many aspects of healthcare. However, it is the physicians, nurses and other healthcare professional that provide care directly to patients. Consequently, does insufficient staffing, heavy workloads, and unsupportive work environment directly contribute to poor patient satisfaction, nurse burnout, high turnover and job dissatisfaction?
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.
Vahey, Doris C., Linda H. Aiken, Douglas M. Sloane, Sean P. Clarke, and Delfino Vargas. "Nurse Burnout and Patient Satisfaction." Medical Care 42.Suppl (2004): II-57-II-66. Print.
Recent literature reports that there is a nursing shortage and it is continually increasing. Data released by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011) projects that the shortage, would increase to 260,000 by the year 2025. AACN (2011) also reported that 13% of newly registered nurses changed jobs and 37% were ready to change within a year. A study conducted reports that there is a correlation between higher nursing workloads and nurse burnout, retention rates, job dissatisfaction and adverse patient outcomes (Vahey & Aiken, 2004). Among the nurses surveyed in the study, over 40% stated that they were suffering from burnout while 1 in 5 nurses intended
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.
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.,
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.
A rising issue in nursing in recent years is how staffing levels effect nursing outcomes including, but not limited to, nurse burnout and job satisfaction. Three types of staffing contribute to nurse workload; they are staffing by hours per patient day, staffing by ratios, and staffing by acuity. Following is an in depth analysis of how nurse staffing affects nurse job satisfaction and burnout.
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.
Nurses want to give complete and quality care, but are unable to, due to the constant needs of their workload and inadequate staffing. They have to prioritize their patients needs based on the most critical treatments first. Then whatever time is left, they fill in what treatments they can. Some reasons that nursing treatments are missed include: too few staff, time required for the nursing intervention, poor use of existing staff resources and ineffective delegation.” (Kalisch, 2006) Many nurses become emotionally stressed and unsatisfied with their jobs. (Halm et al., 2005; Kalisch,
Poghosyan, Clarke, Finlayson, and Aiken (2010) in a cross-national comparative research explored the relationship between nurses’ burnout and the quality of care in 53,846 nurses from six countries. Their researched confirmed that nurses around the world experience burnout due to increase workload. Burnout was manifested as fatigue, irritability, insomnia, headaches, back pain, weight gain, high blood pressure, and depression. Burnout influenced nurses’ job performance, lowered patient satisfaction, and it was significantly associated with poor quality of care. Patient safety decreased as nurses’ job demands
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
Life is too short to be stressed and burned out. There are several ways to help detect and reduce stress. Leaders should be aware of key tips and ideas on stress and burnout so they can prevent it from happening to their co-workers before it becomes a major issue. Leaders can avoid stress and burnout in their department by regaining balance and reassessing priorities for each individual. They should help support and encourage employees, and keep teamwork at the top of their priorities. Leaders should be aware that stress and burnout will affect them at some point, but should always remember why they became a nurse and not give up on a career that they love.