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Consequences of fatigue and burnout in nursing
Consequences of fatigue and burnout in nursing
Consequences of fatigue and burnout in nursing
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One Nurse, One Shift Shifting Perspectives In the nonfiction book The Shift registered nurse, Theresa Brown starts her story with “I'm hiding under the covers: Im afraid. Afraid of that moment when the rock slips and all hell breaks loose. For me, it was the patient who started coughing up blood and within five minutes was dead, just like that.” This is Brown describing some of the struggles she encounters on a typical shift as a nurse.
This nature of work can have devastating effects on the health and wellbeing of a nurse. There are three concepts related to adverse consequences of caring work: these are compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious traumatization.
The idea of shift work is a common one, but for nurses this is not a simple changing of staff during a certain time, change of shift signifies a time of purposeful communication between nurses and patients, in order to promote patient safety and best practices (Caruso, 2007). During this time, there is the possibility for this critical opportunity to relay important information to become disorganized by extraneous information, rather than concentrating on the needs of the patient (Sullivan, 2010). Often the patient is left out of the conversation, and is not a part of the process. Patients and families can play an important role in making sure these transitions in care are safe and effective (AHRQ, 2013).
Mandatory overtime is an issue faced by many nurses across the nation. It is seen as a solution to the nursing shortage crisis; however, it is not a sustainable solution as it has led to an increase in medical errors, increased patient mortality, decreased job satisfaction, nurse fatigue, and deficits in nurse’s work performance. Several states have enacted or are considering laws to prohibit this problem. According to Rubenfire, “This is something that's been going on in hospitals for a very long time,” Ruben noted. “But it is not as focused on as much in the past.”
What was once thought of as a profession driven by compassion and the desire to help those in need has now become filled with weary burnt out nurses who have lost sight of their purpose. Stress has caused them to distance themselves from the principles nursing is built upon. Our health care system needs to be revamped to improve the quality of care being administered. Nurses can be proactive and take steps to avoid burning out but, our health care administrators have to take matters into their hands because they have the capacity to initiate change. They must realize the gravity of the situation and take an offensive position to make a stand against the crisis of nursing
“Better Nurse Staffing and Nurse Work Environments Associated with Increased Survival of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients” states that, “In 2012, registered nurses had 11,610 incidents of MSDs (musculoskeletal disorder), resulting in a median rate of eight days away from work. Among all healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, there were 65,050 nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses that required a median of seven days away from work.” While we are unable to attribute every workplace related injury to stress, burnout, and poor work conditions, it is easy to correlate extreme fatigue with decrease in concentration and increase in avoidable
This paper includes a discussion and analysis of nursing sensitive indicators (NSI) and system specific resources. Identification of indicators and interventions could improve the care that was received by Mr. J., a 72 year old retired rabbi with mild dementia that was admitted for a fractured right hip after falling at home. In the course of his stay and treatment there were a few indicators of issues/problems regarding the care he received during his stay. These issues/problems might affected his healthcare outcome, safety and satisfaction with his stay at the
I thought about nursing burnout through watching the video by speaker Madelyn Blaire. Burnout is categorized as physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. Burnout can lead to dulled emotions and detachment. I wonder why nurses are burning out.
This occurs when nurses provide care to more than the assigned patients, thus increasing patient workload. It affects the patient’s quality of care, increasing the risk for NSOs and other patient complications. Not only are patient outcomes affected, but nurses are experiencing increased burnout and fatigue. A safe nurse is necessary when providing care to ensure a safe and stable patient outcome. These concerns can be preventable by implementing and assigning the necessary tools to minimize effects on nurses and patient
The use of alarm in healthcare is one of the key technology of improving the safety of patients. Alarms can help save individual patient’s life when providers respond to it, and can avoid fatal consequences when used properly. With the benefits of alarms in healthcare, there are also disadvantages of having one. One disadvantage is called alarm fatigue. Alarm fatigue is “a sensory overload when clinicians are exposed to an excessive number of alarms, which can result in desensitization to alarms and missed alarms.”
In my opinion, it is indeed necessary to integrate didactic into the clinical settings within the nursing programs. This is a significant “partnership” that not always succeeds. In order to successfully achieve this; several teaching strategies could be used. Simulation has been shown to be effective in other fields where safety, as in nursing, is of great concern. Industries such as aviation, nuclear energy and the military have achieved a lower rate of failure through simulation training (Galloway, 2009).
This is important evidence because it gives us conditions and results of what can happen if patients get lower quality care. Patients’ are not having enough time getting checked up by a nurse, and nurses would miss some diagnostics. Patients are getting sick because of the poor care they are receiving from nurses. The care patients can get is affected by a nurse shortage, “Nursing workload definitely affects the time that a nurse can allot to various tasks. Under a heavy workload, nurses may not have sufficient time to perform tasks that can have a direct effect on patient safety.
2 Sleep Deprivation in the Nursing Profession Sleep deprivation is known as a condition of not getting enough sleep that can affect the brain and cognitive functions. "It occurs when a person sleeps for fewer hours than necessary over multiple days or week" (Eanes, 2015). When we think of nurses we are reminded of people who promote the health of others. However, many are unknowingly compromising their own health by working those 12-hour shifts. Many times, its more than 12 hours when they are finally able to go home.
Nurses fatigue is growing problem nurse face each day in the healthcare environment, and he can be caused by long hours, sleep deprivation, and possibly by accepting extra assignments can be dangerous for both nurses and patient. These inadequacies can result in major implications for the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care which can lead to fatalities. (American Nurses Association, 2014). In my experience, being fatigued from working much 12-hour shifts consecutively was very difficult as I felt extremely tired, resulting in lack of focus, missing important details during the handing over the process with impaired cognitive functioning. This I found was detrimental to the patients and myself as it impedes quality and has a deleterious effect on patient safety.
An ordinary day of a nurse is filled with enduring hours of physical, mental, and emotional work. A nurse always has to be on their feet and ready to go. They must be ready face the obstacles placed upon them, and make life and death decisions in the snap of a finger. This is not an easy job by any means, and can leave you run-down at the end of the day. It may feel as though the day is a never-ending cycle, but it is so worth the health and happiness of others in
