Competing Needs Impacting Burnout in Nursing
Nurses continue to experience a high level of burnout because of the nature of their working environment. One of the competing demands, which affect their work, is the need to serve the growing needs of the patient population that might make them neglect their wellbeing. Leaders in healthcare organizations expect nurses to be present and support their patients. The pressure might compete with the importance of ensuring their health and wellbeing. They arrive to work early and leave late after ensuring that all patients have received their care. The emotional exhaustion and compassion fatigue usually take a toll on their health. As a result, many nurses suffer from the impact of stress and burnout (Portoghese, Galletta, Coppola, Finco, & Campagna, 2014). While nurses struggle to provide care to their patients amid resource limitation, they might cause an increase in medical errors or adverse drug events because of overworking. Many health care organizations are operating with inadequate nursing staff. Therefore, the available nurses might work overtime to meet the needs of all patients. They work in a pressure-filled setting, which might lead to medical errors and adverse effects on their patients. The competing need, in this case, relates to the limitation of human resource that creates pressure to meet the needs of patients. Burnout is one of the leading causes of medical errors in health care facilities across the country.
Relevant Policy or Practice
The appropriate policy that might influence the level of burnout and related effects is a medical and wellness training practice at the organizational level to develop self-efficacy and resilience among nurses (Fida, Laschinger, & Leiter, 2018). Nurses struggle with burnout because of the lack of necessary support as they meet the complex needs of their patients. The hospital-wide policy should include employee assistance programs to help nurses to achieve positive outcomes in their emotional and physical health. It should consist of relevant training for nurses to overcome compassion fatigue. Although they should remain sympathetic towards their patients, they should learn resilience to prevent the pressure from developing into burnout. The program should allow them to talk about their emotions relevant to their experience with clients, especially those suffering from chronic conditions. Besides, the policy should address the demands inherent in their practice (Henry, 2014). For example, they should receive emotional support whenever they feel overwhelmed with their work. The policy should provide overall care and support the well-being of the nursing staff. The program should include relaxation mechanisms, such as yoga, massage therapy, and other mental health and emotional support. Such initiatives would help them deal with the pressure of competing needs in their work settings.
Ethical Considerations
The proposed policy meets the criteria for ethical action in a health care setting. Ethical programs should respect the right of the nurses and patients and prevent any harm in its implementation. One of the ethical considerations in the implementation of the policy is to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of information provided by participants. All information provided by the nurses will not be shared with any third party or person who is not directly involved in the program. Another ethical consideration in the policy is protecting participants from any harm (Runciman, Merry, & Walton, 2017). Nurses involved in the program are already suffering from mental and emotional exhaustion. Therefore, the program should help them to recover. One of the strengths of the policy is that it promotes the health and wellness of the nursing staff at the hospital. Besides, it helps them to extend positive care outcomes to patients by preventing the adverse effects of stress and burnout. However, implementors will face a challenge in promoting ethics because of the need to collect participant’s information to meet their needs. Information shared might be easily accessed by other people not directly involved in the program through networked information systems at the hospital.
Recommended Policy or Practice Changes
The hospital will implement changes to accommodate the proposed program to support the health and wellbeing of nurses to prevent stress and burnout. The hospital administration will provide the necessary space and resources to implement the program. Besides, it will create time for nurses to participate in the project. Therefore, the hospital will create more flexible schedules to have the time for nurses to recover from compassion fatigue and emotional exhaustion from their work. For example, after working for a specific period, they should be allowed to take a break to recuperate from the pressure of their work. One of the ways to address the ethical shortcomings is to avoid using the real identity of the nurses participating in the program. Furthermore, the hospital should not use the information for any purpose apart from assisting nurses to build resilience and self-efficacy. For instance, they should not use the information to conduct a performance assessment or make decisions associated with the nurse’s work. The policy should protect participants by ensuring that they provide adequate information without fear of negative outcomes, such as being reprimanded for negative performance due to burnout.
References
Fida, R., Laschinger, H. K. S., & Leiter, M. P. (2018). The protective role of self-efficacy against workplace incivility and burnout in nursing: A time-lagged study. Health Care Management Review, 43(1), 21-29.
Henry, B. J. (2014). Nursing Burnout Interventions. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 18(2), 211-216.
Portoghese, I., Galletta, M., Coppola, R. C., Finco, G., & Campagna, M. (2014). Burnout and workload among health care workers: The moderating role of job control. Safety and Health at Work, 5(3), 152-157.
Runciman, B., Merry, A., & Walton, M. (2017). Safety and ethics in healthcare: A guide to getting it right. New York, NY: CRC Press.