Nursing: The Effects Of Burnout In Nursing

Effects of Burnout in Nursing

What is burnout? Burnout occurs when nurses are overwhelmed, physically and mentally drained, and just super exhausted from work. The effects of burnout in nursing can apply to everything in the daily lives of nurses. Some effects can be associated with social life, family, or work. For example, if a nurse is burnt out, he/she may not want to talk to anyone and just keep things for themselves. Another example of an effect is neglected family or work responsibilities.

Professional Risk Factors

There are multiple risk factors that are associated with burnout out nurses. Some include alienating themselves from everyone else, utilization of drugs or food to cope with things, taking a while to actually get things

There are indeed consequences to a burnout. Some consequences can lead to cardiovascular problems. Burnout can lead to changes in the body. Those changes lead to negative consequences, which can decrease immunity and make the body vulnerable to the common cold and flu (Smith, M., Segal, J., Robinson, L., & Segal, R. June, 2016).

Recommendations

There are several ways to prevent a burnout. The first recommendation is to seek social support. This means that a nurse should reach out to someone who is willing to listen and will not judge them. “Social contact is nature’s antidote to stress (Smith, M., Segal, J., Robinson, L., & Segal, R. June, 2016)”.

The second recommendation is to start moving. This means that a nurse can do some type of workout or exercise which will help ease the stress and will not lead to a burnout. The third recommendation is to change the way a nurse looks at their job. This means that a nurse should look at their job in a positive way and just think of all the wonderful things that come out of their career Smith, M., Segal, J., Robinson, L., & Segal, R. June,

The hospitals would need to fix the situation by having staffing standards. The nurses need to be staffed sufficiently to avoid nursing burnout, because when a nurse is burnt out, then the patients will also be affected. The nurses would also need their time off to rest, so that they can function properly in the hospital (Wagner, 2013).

Graph 1 In the graph shown above, it shows the percentages of staff who are experiencing emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. There is quite a big difference in the burnout levels for all three categories. The most would be personal accomplishment and it is about close to 60% of the staff. Then the other two categories follow which are both at about 53%. So therefore most of the staff are experiencing burnout dealing with personal accomplishments.

In conclusion, burnout in nursing can affect the kind of care that a nurse will render to a patient. If a nurse is burn out, then they may not want to take their job seriously, which will put the patients in danger and at risk for certain things. So nurses should take care of themselves and have adequate rest and also try not to overwhelm themselves with so much work. It is best to just do it one step at a time to avoid being burnt