The Importance Of Nurse Burnout In Nursing

Nursing is a very demanding job and can have an overall impact on the nurse both mentally and physically. Specifically within the critical care environment, nurses are more likely at risk for developing job burnout, due to the intense nature of their work. Job burnout is a type of job stress in which the state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion is combined with doubts about the competence and value of your work, (Mayo Clinic, 2015). The specific burnout that the nurse may be experiencing is not only affecting them, but also their patient they are looking after. It is critical for us, as nurses, to be able to recognize the warning signs of burnout and find ways in which to take steps in order to address them, in order to improve the

Patients are directly affected by nursing burnout, as their life is being put in the hands of many health care professionals who may exhibit signs and symptoms of burnout. According to this article, it is proved that inadequate patient care is linked to burnout in clinicians, “The high-intensity natures of nurses’ work means that nurses themselves are at risk of committing errors while providing routine care,” (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017). These specific errors can be represented as medication administration errors, which can have a fatal affect on the patient, especially in the critical care environment. Because of the many symptoms related to nursing burnout, it creates an overall condition that interferes with the nurses’ physical and cognitive ability to function to their normal capacity, resulting in effects on patient safety. As articles regarding the correlation between nursing burnout and patient safety suggest, “The majority of studies measuring burnout found that more errors were significantly associated with health practitioner burnout,” (Hall et al., 2016). The impact of the levels of burnout expressed by nurses within the critical care environment clearly affects nurses’ judgment, decision making and problem solving, which has been associated with increased and near errors in

Although Yorkton has a limited amount of critical care patients compared to larger hospitals, like Regina, they are still responsible for many patients in the intensive care unit. These patients in the rural acute settings are still high acuity patients who require 24/7, intensive care. It is known of the shortages of staffing in the ICU in the rural setting. Because of the additional courses needed in order to become an ICU nurse, there are few that may have this specific training. Graduate nurses are not being hired in the ICU because of the lack of experience, so the majority of staff in the ICU are senior staff. Because of this, there may be a shortage of staff. Furthermore, leading to increased risk of burnout in the nurses of the critical care setting. There may be more pressure on the ICU staff in Yorkton as they may be of the highest trained nursing staff within the hospital. They may have increased pressure on them, as they may be responsible for stabilizing the critically ill patient. Rural hospitals may not have access to all the resources and technology supported within larger hospitals, as they simply do not have the government funding. This is turn, can lead to distress among the care providers, further leading to possible burnout. It is vital to