Burnout is a type of psychological stress. Stress and burnout are common among nurses who are the largest group of health care professions. Nurses experience burnout at some point of the career based on the intensity of workload and the emotional bonds that form with patients. The strain of nursing leads to burnout that contributes to physical, mental, and emotional exhaust of a nurse There is a concern that high levels of nurse burnout could adversely affect patients outcome. Patient safety is a priority, thus understanding the cause of nursing burnout is significant. There is association of long shifts hours, inadequate staffing, poor nursing benefits contributes to an increase in burnout leads to a risk of patient safety. More than a decade …show more content…
Hospital understaffing nurses increases the workload and the patient-to-nurses ratio makes a difference in patient outcome. In hospital with high patient-to-nurse ratios, surgical patient experience higher risk and failure-to-rescue rates and nurses are more likely to experience burnout and dissatisfaction. Nurses nationwide consistently report that hospital staffing levels are inadequate to provide safe and effective care (Cimiotti et al., 2012). In 2004, California was the first state to implement minimum patient-to-nurse staffing ratios. The legislation was motivated by an increasing hospital nursing shortage and perception that lower nurse retention in hospital practice was related to burdensome workloads and high level of job dissatisfaction. California fully mandated the patient-to-nurse ratio for every surgical patient is 1 to 5 (American Nurses Association, 2016). California is the only state that stipulates in law and regulations a required minimum nurse-to-patient ratio to be maintained at all times by the unit (American Nurses Association, 2016). Based on the result in California, the Registered Nurse Staffing Act has resulted in states taking action to ensure there is optical nurse staffing is appropriated to patients’ needs, however not all states have as strict regulations as California (American Nurses Association, 2016). Thus, the California …show more content…
Survey data from nurses working shifts of more than thirteen hours increased patients’ dissatisfaction with care (Stimpfel, Sloane, & Aiken, 2012). Furthermore, nurses working shifts of ten hours or longer were up to two and a half times more likely than nurses working shorter shifts to experience burnout and job dissatisfaction. Extended shifts undermine nurses’ well being, may result in job turnover and can negatively affect patient care. Based on the study, patients were less satisfied with their care when nurse-working shifts of thirteen or more hours compared to nurses working less hours (Stimpfel, Sloane, & Aiken, 2012). Nurses underestimate the impact of working long shifts because the idea of working three days a week instead of five seems appealing. However, working three day week can sometime turn into additional, unplanned workday which leads an increase in burnout and
... social life issues. Supporting to these Todd et al. (1993) demonstrated that nurses with 8 hour shifts had a high level of satisfaction than nurses worked for 12 hour shifts. However, contradictory results were found in Stone et al.(2006) study. They reported a significant level of nurse’s satisfaction was revealed with 12-hour shifts than those with 8-hour shifts. Furthermore, in 1996 Golec et al. carried out a study to compare the effect of 8 and 12 hour shifts among ICU nurses. The finding revealed that the nurses with 12-hour shifts demonstrate less social and family disruption than 8-hour shifts. Nevertheless, 12-hour shifts reported more health, and wellbeing complains s than 8-hour shifts. In addition, the study indicated that although 12-hour shifts provide more days off, it appears to be insufficient to dispel the adverse effects on health and wellbeing.
Nursing standards are the building blocks that lead to excellent patient care. The ANA (American Nursing Association) has standardized sixteen common practices for the best quality care of patients by nurses. Nurses are only able to facilitate minimal standards to patients due to time restraints derived from patient ratios and lack of support from administration. The hope to achieve the best possible outcomes in patient care are limited to the minimal standards expected of nurses from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (ANA, 2010). Patient ratios have been seen as a huge issue across the realm of nurses and health care facilities in deliverance on patient care. Addressing the issue of nursing shortages and the effects on ...
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.
The 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
The article examined many studies conducted to measure stress and burnout in nurses and found that the environment and conditions in the workplace have a great deal to do with the perceived stress levels. In the article, it speaks of the definition of stress as being a negative factor that is perceived to pose a threat to the perceiver. This definition goes on to state that one person may see an event as stressful, while another may view the same situation as exhilarating. The important part of this “new definition” is that we can choose, by manipulation of our attitudes, to view our lives as stress filled or an enjoyable ride. One’s perception is a big factor in workplace stress.
It is clear that statewide mandated nurse-to patient ratios result in drastic financial changes for every hospital impacted. Hospitals often have to compensate for hiring more nurses by laying off support staff. Mandated ratios also result in an increase in holding time in emergency rooms . (Douglas,
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?
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.
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.
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
The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of nursing staffing ratios in the healthcare industry. This has always been a primary issue, and it continues to grow as the population rate increases throughout the years. According to Shakelle (2013), in an early study of 232,432 surgical discharges from several Pennsylvania hospitals, 4,535 patients (2%) died within 30 days of hospitalization. Shakelle (2014) also noted that during the study, there was a difference between 4:1 and 8:1 patient to nurse ratios which translates to approximately 1000 deaths for a group of that size. This issue can be significantly affected in a positive manner by increasing the nurse to patient ratio, which would result in more nurses to spread the work load of the nurses more evenly to provide better coverage and in turn result in better care of patients and a decrease in the mortality rates.
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
Bedside nurses want to change staffing levels to assure that they have enough time to both keep up with the constantly evolving health care and to provide safe patient care. Yet, healthcare employers consider that reducing nurse patient ratio is an unnecessary expense that has not been proven to improve quality of patient care (Unruh, 2008). Employers emphasize that raising nursing staffing level is not cost-effective. In fact, in accordance with ANA’s report (2013), a study, in the Journal of Health Care Finance, confirmed that reducing patient-nurse ratios increased hospital costs, but did not lower their profitability. Higher hospital costs were attributed to wages and benefits allocated to newly hired nurses. Yet, according to Cimiotti et.al (20112), it is more costly for hospitals to not invest money on nursing.
Notably, having higher proportions of nurses working shorter shifts—8–9 hours or 10–11 hours—resulted in decreases in patient dissatisfaction” (Stimpfel et al.). This is essentially saying that the longer the shift length, the more negative outcomes result. This study proves that eight to nine-hour shifts are more effective, and should, in turn, be worked more than longer shifts. This is a problem because hospitals are likely to continue to schedule nurses for twelve hours shifts out of