The Problem of Nursing Burnout in my Nursing Profession
There has been an ongoing nursing burnout issue in my professional field. This situation has caused cynicism among nurses and clients, including low self-esteem. It is characterized by reduced emotional, psychological, and emotional energy from work-based stress. Providing care to patients is arguably the most significant aspect of healthcare. However, the pressure of this care may be significantly overwhelming. Nurses st ff can be physically and emotionally exhausted to a level in which they cannot work at a given capacity. Nursing has been a demanding profession, but current advancement has assisted in bringing nursing burnout to the forefront. Emergency nurses are significantly vulnerable to burnout because of constantly being exposed to traumatic events, varying work schedules, and violence directed at staff. There is also a range of organizational, structural, cultural, and societal factors which cause burnout (Sullivan et al., 2022). They include the absence of organizational support, administrative burden, and high workloads.
Why Nursing Burnout is Urgent and Needs Resolution
The issue of nursing burnout has been a matter of urgency. It cannot be dismissed as it harms the organizational culture in the nursing profession, health outcomes, and patient safety. Al‐Natour et al. (2022) found that toxic personal relationships are a risk factor for adverse behavioral and psychological responses. Thus, an unsafe work culture for medical staff puts patients at risk. A less obvious but dangerous outcome is the degrading of corporate culture whereby medical deontology and bioethics are not valued, particularly because of a recent build-up of cynical attitudes or exhaustion. Medical e errors that compromise the safety of patients could also be an outcome of nursing burnout. Ozeke et al. (2019) state that medical errors can be defined by active and latent, system and individual factors. The human factor significantly contributes to medical mistakes, and currently, there exists a common consensus that medical precision is allied closely to the nurses’ mental well-being. A study by Kelly et al. (2021). shows that errors and burnout can even result in a circular system and form a self-sustaining system. When a nurse gets exhausted, they are fond of making more mistakes, and the intensified awareness of one’s fault mainly adds to lower personal attainment, which plays a pivotal role in the burnout concept. The issue of nursing burnout has been a silent pandemic within the field that has left affected staff emotionally depersonalized, exhausted, or suffering from a poor image. Among the risk factors include the absence of autonomy, neuroticism, long shifts, and poor staffing within the nursing organization. The problem can no longer be neglected since the hospital staff’s mental well-being impacts the rate of medical error and patient safety.
A specific solution to resolve the issue of Nursing Burnout
Numerous efforts have been aimed at introducing initiatives and policies to address the issue of nursing burnout. They can roughly be portioned into two significant groups focusing on tackling individual factors like neuroticism and low self-efficacy and resolving organizational factors. I propose better nurse staffing as the most effective response to the current nursing burnout pandemic. According to Gesner et al. (2022)., a better nurse working environment and a reduced patient-to-nurse ratio are steadfast predictors of a patient’s survival in in-hospital cardiac Arrest (IHCA). Sullivan et al. (2022) argue that unsatisfactory nursing work environments result in a 16% survival rate reduction. In addition, Chen et al. (2019) maintain that with a different patient-nurse ratio in a medical-surgical unit, there would be a 5% probability of survival. This show that a better patient outcome can only be accomplished through enhancing a psychologically safe workplace and always ensuring that hospital units are staffed adequately.
How the Solution will work
There are numerous strategies for effective nursing staff, each of which should be considered in my proposal. The aim o nurse staffing is dual: It addresses staff retention and attracting new talent by providing an advanced working environment. You should note that nurses are normally allocated administrative roles, shifting their focus from patient-oriented tasks. Paperwork is not only exhaustive but also hinders nurses from strongly bonding with patients, a factor that leads to the risk of burnout (Chen et al., 2019). Nurses will benefit from a rapid response team that will allow nurses to request a clinicians team to take action without being hindered by paperwork. Moreover, mutual support and having clearly defined responsibilities, particularly in times of crisis, will help with exhaustion. Transformation of the work process could, however, only be effective without necessarily making any radical change, like the transformation of the whole organizational culture. Successful approaches and strategies to creating an effective environment to retain senior staff and hire new ones could effectively work through mentorship. New nurses must feel welcomed and their needs catered for (Kelly et al., 2021). They should be oriented in the first few weeks of work to get familiar with the organizational climate. The staff ng solution may also work through exploring opportunities for other health staff to advance their levels of education, practice autonomy in selecting shifts, and assume leadership roles in regulation and policy-making.
Conclusion
The nursing burnout issue can no longer be disregarded due to the hospital staff’s mental well-being and affects the rate of medical error and the safety of the patients. The specific way to address the issue should be to work on nurse staffing that involves retaining existing nurses and recruiting others by providing them with necessary work conditions. Effective y addressing the issue will offer a better evidence-based state of nursing burnout, its causes, and the possible outcomes and help develop an evidence-based solution, thus motivating workplace change.
References
Sullivan, V., Hughes, V., & Wilson, D. R. (2022). Nursing burnout and its impact on health. Nursing C clinics, 57(1), 153–169. https://p bmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35236605/
Al‐Natour, A., Abuziad, L., & Hweidi, L. I. (2022). Nurses’ experiences of workplace violence in the emergency department. Internati nal nursing review. https://p bmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35751909/
Ozeke, O., Ozeke, V., Coskun, O., & Budakoglu, I. I. (2019). Second victims in health care: current perspectives. Advances n Medical Education and Practice, 593-603. https://w w.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6697646/
Kelly, L. A., Gee, P. M., & Butler, R. J. (2021). Impact of nurse burnout on organizational and position turnover. Nursing Outlook, 69(1), 96–102. https://w w.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7532952/
Gesner, E., Dykes, P. C., Zhang, L., & Gazarian, P. (2022). Documenta ion Burden in Nursing and Its Role in Clinician Burnout Syndrome. Applied Clinical Informatics, 13(05), 983–990. https://p bmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36261113/
Chen, Y. C., Guo, Y. L. L., Chin, W. S., Cheng, N. Y., Ho, J. J., & Shiao, J. S. C. (2019). Patient–nurse ratio is related to nurses’ intention to leave their job through mediating factors of burnout and job dissatisfaction. Internati nal journal of environmental research and public health, 16(23), 4801. https://p bmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31795420/