My Second Ha Moment Analysis

According to Suzanne Gordon “ whether young or old, nurses are disillusioned because they believe that health care systems guided by bottom-line concerns simply don’t recognize the specificity of their work” (234). Nursing is more demanding than many other professions or occupations, due to the combination of difficult patients, exhausting schedules and arduous physical work (Gordon 235). It can take a significant emotional toll on many, hence the higher levels of burnout. Job dissatisfaction as a result of increased workloads and unreasonable demands, such as inappropriate nurse staffing levels, was cited as the number one reason that drives many experienced nurses to leave the profession (Sanford 38+). Studies have shown that such working conditions also affected the retention of new graduate nurses by leaving their first hospital jobs within two years of graduating (Sanford 38+).

Those of us who graduated from nursing school and started their first job were full of dreams, aspirations, and had every intention of making a difference. Now fast forward five years; these same nurses have been on their feet for 16 hours and have not had time to eat or use the bathroom since leaving their homes this morning. The call lights will not stop going off long enough for them to give report to the oncoming nurses and once again they are late for their children’s dance recitals or soccer games. They can forget about trying to squeeze a yoga class in this week. I understand what it is like to rush to your car feeling as if some important task was forgotten; was Mr. Smith’s tube feed restarted, did room 8 receive their pain medication? Nurses all over the world are experiencing “burnout”. To avoid burnout, nurses must properly care for themselves by separating work from personal life, knowing when to say no, and making time for enjoyable activities to manage stress, because we cannot provide quality patient care if we are neglecting ourselves.

The term burnout, according to Catalano, is a continuing depletion of energy and strength combined with a loss of motivation and commitment after prolonged exposure to high occupational stress (2015). When a unit or facility is understaffed, not only do the nursing staff get burnt out, the patients also don’t receive the quality of care they deserve. Due to the increase in workload, nursing staff are more prone to making mistakes and medical errors and sometime times do not fellow facility policies. The nurse-patient ratio aspect sometimes gets overlooked at and that could lead to possible medication errors, lack of communication, falls, neglect, abuse and/or death may occur. Sometimes, it become so overwhelming people turn to leave the workforce all together. When nurses and CNA workload increase, they become frustrated and unhappy, and the desire to leave

Physician burnout is a growing crisis, coming to affect more than half of practicing physicians. Defined as a long-term stress reaction, burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion and distress characterized by cynicism, depersonalization, poor judgement, and feelings of doubt in self-competence and work value. Because work in the medical field often involves constant demands and intense interactions with people around-the-clock, the prevalence of burnout in medical care is much higher than in other professions. Past health care reforms resulting in changes in medicine have contributed to physician burnout, with physicians citing excessive workload, an inefficient work environment, increasing computerization, and the medical education system as reasons for burnout. Caused by a variety of reasons,

With the passing of the Affordable Care Act, a rise in patient care was expected however there were several factors that weren’t expected. One such factor was the number of patients that had chronic illnesses that had been ignored for so long due to not having insurance. The care for these critically ill patients caused an increased strain on nurses and other health care professionals. The increased stress on workers caused them to consider an alternative career. Workplace stress is has contributed to an increase amount of depression and burnout in nurses, which caused a ripple effects of call outs, nurse shortage, and more burnout. Another factor that was not considered was the increased amount of paperwork that has been added. According to the new regulations of the Affordable Care Act, “190 million additional hours of paperwork annually” (heritage.com) has been added which inadvertently has reduced the amount of one on one patient time. This again, is another factor that will contribute to the burnout of the healthcare professionals.

“Working in a Hospital everyday is a new situation, so it keeps you on your feet.You don’t know what type of patient you may come across everyday.You interact with patients daily and give them their medication a certain time according to the medication. Other tasks involve you giving the patient's chart to the doctors. Sometimes when I go with the doctors on their rounds, i have the opportunity to counsel the patients about recommended course of

Inconsistent nurse-patient ratios are a concern in hospitals across the nation because they limit nurse’s ability to provide safe patient care. Healthcare professionals such as nurses and physicians agree that current nurse staffing systems are inadequate and unreliable and not only affect patient health outcomes, but also create job dissatisfaction among medical staff (Avalere Health, 2015). A 2002 study led by RN and PhD Linda Aiken suggests that "forty percent of hospitals nurses have burnout levels that exceed the norms for healthcare workers" (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski & Silber, 2002). These data represents the constant struggle of nurses when trying to provide high quality care in a hospital setting.

In the ever changing world of healthcare, healthcare organizations in order to be the most efficient in their delivery of healthcare, streamline their organizational structure to stay competitive, while providing the best patient care possible. This process can place increasingly undue stress onto its staff resulting in nurses having to do more with less available resources which ultimately increases their workload, has them working longer hours due to staff shortage, which contributes to an increase in the nurse burnout rates. This eventually filters down to the patient’s level of care and means less time spent on each

It is evident that many different types of knowledge influenced Allison’s decision-making process when caring for her patients. There were also contextual factors that played a role in each nurse-patient interaction. The first contextual was the intrinsic nature of the nurse and the patient as individuals. Working in an understaffed nursing environment can cause nurses to experience burnout. Allison ensures she cares for herself physically and emotionally; allowing her to come to work refreshed and prepared for the stressful environment. She also focuses on the positive aspects of her work, such as believing that a busy shift will go by faster, rather than dwelling on

As a new graduate registered nurse, I know that when I begin my first job the reality shock will occur. I will be overwhelmed at times by anxiety, fear, failure, and disappointment. Burnout is higher for new nurses, and it is my responsibility to help combat it for my fellow graduates and for myself. For years nurses have felt the increased impact of compassion fatigue, with patient safety and satisfaction rates plummeting. Nurses are faced with sicker patients with shorter hospital stays everyday. The pressure to treat the patients, but get them out of the hospital as soon as possible; without making any mistakes is a huge burden most nurses will feel at some point in their career. There have been countless studies, thousands of hours, and billions of dollars for research spent on finding a solution to the problem. In order to find a solution one must first understand the problem. These are three separate issues with one common problem, high nurse-patient ratios.

The issue of healthcare personnel scarcity continues to be an ongoing challenge across the globe. Invariably, nurses are at the pinnacle in the delivery of quality care in any healthcare setting. The ever-increasing demands for care stem from a patient populace that is emergent, growing older and needing more care due to the escalating shift in their disease process. Hence, nurses are torn between balancing an overloaded schedule, working extra hours and maintaining astuteness and professionalism. This transcends to compromised patient care, nursing burnout makes it difficult for them to experience the rewards of caring for patients in the way they had expected; thereby, adding to the shortage of

Additionally, the study found that a high patient to nurse ratio resulted in greater emotional exhaustion and greater job dissatisfaction amongst nurses. Each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 23% increase in the likelihood of nurse burnout, and a 15% increase in the likelihood of job dissatisfaction. Moreover, 40% of hospital nurses have burnout levels exceeding the normal level for healthcare workers, and job dissatisfaction among hospital nurses is four times greater than the average for all US workers. 43% of nurses involved in this study that reported job dissatisfaction intended to leave their job within the upcoming year. (Aiken et al.)

Nurses, always involved in patient care, sometimes experience detrimental effects with prolonged stress or “burnout” during their career throughout the years. Burnout is defined as an extended response to physical or emotional stressors. Some examples of these stressors are; memories of witnessing death, patient and family suffering, emotional stress of losing patients, feeling emotionally and physically drained, or emotional disconnect from staff which can all contribute to burnout. As a result, nurses can experience; exhaustion, anxiety, dissatisfaction and low capacity. Overall, burnout can have negative effects not just on the emotional and physical health of nurses but also on; patient satisfaction, outcomes and mortality of nurses and patients. Although, there are ways to reduce or prevent these negative effects of burnout from manifesting. For example, nurses can apply interventions to reduce these risks including; staff support, onsite counselors and psychiatrists for nurses and salary increases and reimbursement opportunities for nurses through clinical ladder programs. Nurses can also start by just saying no to certain requests, being aware of their tolerance level, by taking care of themselves and having fun outside of work. On the other hand, others do not think nursing burnout is fatal and nurses just need a break from their job to initiate change. Although, the issue of burnout is prevalent in nurse’s careers which need to be addressed more in society in

In many hospitals and clinics, workloads for nurses are high which in many cases can result in job dissatisfaction and burnout. The job of nurses are not easy, they work twelve hours of shift with emergency care. It is very important to have the good workplace where the work done by nurses are valued, otherwise soon nurses with start to get “burnout”. The term burnout initially started to describe the point when jet or rocket engine stops operating but later it was used for the humans especially for the job like nursing. Nurses are the one who spend most of the time with the patients and if they are happy with their work, they will keep patients happy. In the hospital settings, patients’ health is always a priority and to keep that priority

My aha moment was realizing that this is a course to keep me on my toes, trying to prepare me for a leadership role. I’ve learned to be a member of the team. Instead of trying to complete my assignments all on my own, it’s a lot easier to get a fresh look at my work before being turned in. I’ve also corrected other people’s work which helped me be more keen on finding problems with my work. I plan on being more open in group discussions. My energy level has been low since I’m out of my comfort zone, but I plan to be more energetic now that I’m getting used to ALS.