Strategies to prevent Stress & Burnout in Nursing - Research Paper Example

Strategies to prevent Stress & Burnout in Nursing Introduction In hospitals, nurses come in contact with patients all through, and they do not get relief from burnout. The journal of Clinical Psychiatry reported that nurses who are employed in the most crowded sectors most probably take long-term sickness absence as compared to nurses who work in sectors with optimal number of patients. Literature review shows that nurses who experience stress and burnout may be affected professionally, and the quality of care they give to their peers, patients, and themselves may as well be negatively affected. In the nursing profession, burnout may occur due to unrelenting stress, though it is not similar to extreme stress. By definition, stress involves extreme pressure that demands much from a nurse psychologically and physically. Just like any other person in any profession, stressed nurses can still imagine, that if everything was put under control, then they will be relieved. A nurse who is burnt out feels empty, lacks motivation, and is beyond caring. The Burnout syndrome is characterized by depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and reduced individual accomplishment. He or she does not see any hope of positive change in a given situation, and is all dried up. In most cases, stress education programs fail to materialize due to their irrelevancy to bedside nurses or because such nurses do not get any support from the administration. Finding sufficient strategies aimed at averting burnout and stress are vital, and would not only limit the quantity of suffering for nurses, but would also benefit the Healthcare sector (McConnell, 2008). Literature review A number of studies have explored burnout and stress among nurses in many countries in relation to patient outcomes. Too often, burnouts are directly linked to increased mortality, patient dissatisfaction, and failure to rescue. Similarly, in a relation between clinical care and personal stress, nurses reported 76 incidents where they believed patient care was badly impacted by stress (Timby & Smith, 2005). However, personality has been always considered as a significant variable in the work stress/burnout equation in many investigations. Jointly, these findings support the fact that perceptions of burnouts and work stress among nurses are not just as a result of work conditions given that not all nurses, exposed to the same working conditions, experience stress or develop burnout. Neurotism has been linked to exhaustion, while external locus of control has showed a positive correlation with stress and burnout. Evaluation of anxiety demonstrates a connection with burnout and stress. Anxiety may be more stable and viewed as a personality feature. Ahola (2007) concluded that nurses with high state anxiety do not only risk having burnouts, but also make medical errors. Maslach C, and Jackson S. (1982), in their study found that nurses with high trait-anxiety experienced psychological distress. Further, relationships with head nurses, coworkers, physicians, and other departments are key predictors of psychological stress. Oral abuse from physicians has been noted to stress up staff nurses. Most frequent source of abuse tend to be other nurses, family abuse come second, and physician abuse is least frequent. Professional standards to ensure quality care for their clients Burnout and stress are most likely causes of poor performance and negative work attitudes. According to Elis and Hartley (2004), professional standards in nursing such as setting realistic goals, not taking issues individually, taking time away, and doing things differently help nurses gain a better sense of accomplishment. Dissimilar work routines can help to deter psychological stress and give a sense of better control. Carrying out tasks less personally entails objectifying negative interactions in helping limit emotional involvement, thus reducing stress. Failure to bring patient problems at home also decreases emotional involvement by nurses. Keeping professional standards also may involve the way nurses manage their time and communicate with patients and other people. According to Timby and Smith, (2005), nurses ought to take some time away as well as organizing their work more effectively. Increased daily working hours and long stretches of work may result in fatigue and medical errors. These professionals should therefore take a few minutes to stretch, make a personal phone call, take a walk, meditate, read a newspaper, or simply relax for a moment. These simple techniques to “recharge” are likely to increase their productivity and make them more effective than working tirelessly. Professionally, they can also manage their time well by scheduling a set of uninterrupted time such as not picking phone calls at work or reading Emails so that they can perform their clinical work effectively. Maintaining positive relationships with patients, colleagues, and physicians is usually challenging and needs strong communication skills. They can reduce the likelihood of being stressed up or burned out by taking advantage of programs that enhances their communication skills and help them become more adept at tackling difficult situations. Their profession requires that nurses learn how to better communicate with patients across all cultures and languages. Nurses should ask their patients concerning the language they prefer most for their medical care record and strive to use professional interpreters whenever possible. Using professional interpreters are associated with communication improvements (comprehension and errors), patient satisfaction, and positive clinical outcomes. Moreover, a consistent review of the literature indicate that professional interpreters enable better clinical care by nurses as compared to the use of untrained staff members, friends, strangers in the hospital, and family members of patients (Rowe , 1997) Professional standards guarantee the highest level of quality in patient care. Excellent nursing performance is a mirror of sound ethical standards. Nurses should be able to critically think, solve problems, and realize the best solution for patients’ needs, especially in maintaining, recovering, and enhancing their health (Bryant, Fairbrother, & Fenton, 2000). Thinking critically calls for practice-based and scientific-based measures for making clinical judgments. Such measures may base on scientific research results or practices founded on standards initiated by clinical experts. How nurses can care for themselves and their peers The idea of self care has been emphasized in many documentaries as a strategy to prevent burnout and stress among nurses. It is essential for restoring, maintaining, and energizing the emotional and physical stamina to manage stress. Caring for oneself involves several habits such as regular health check-up, exercise, rest, and proper diet. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle for a nurse is important for avoiding the physical impacts brought about by stress. Nurses should also engage in activities that can help them extricate from their professional habits and provide enjoyment activities like music, art, hobbies, sports, and journaling. Self-reflection is a preferred technique to remind nurses why they entered the nursing profession and what is desirable in this career. Rowe , M. (1997) argues that spirituality may help individuals to gain a sense of meaning or purpose in life and improve coping skills, particularly for nurses who are taking care of dying patients. High standards of self-awareness help nurses to sport out the factors that cause burnout or stress and the way to deal with these. Many casual self-assessment practices may be availed for nurses to determine work-related stress. Colleagues have an exclusive role in understanding each other’s care needs and professional stressors. A supportive working environment may protect a fellow nurse from burnouts. Peer social support is especially vital during periods of uncertainty and change in the work settings and can give insight, help, comfort, and reward. (Ahola, 2007). Specifically, stressful environments and informal social support can help nurses deal with emotionally difficult situations such as loss of a patient. Enhancing conflict resolution skills and being assertive can help a nurse deal more efficiently with peers. Health concerns should be discussed constructively rather than negatively with fellow peers. Recommendations for future clinic practices to prevent stress and burnout in nursing Interventions to promote individual adaptive coping and well-being techniques are associated with limited risk of burnout and stress. According to a systematic review carried out in 1999, self-care programs elements that seem to be effective include social support, music, relaxation training, and cognitive techniques (McConnell, 2008). Coworker support, positive response to training, and opportunities ahead are associated with lower levels of stress and burnout. A comprehensive outline of nurse stress and burnout should be developed to make nurses understand these two issues in their workplaces. Empirical studies can be performed to investigate the relationships between these two complex concerns over time (Maslach & Leiter, 2008). When work stress is scrutinized from a more solid conceptual and theoretical perspective, then intervention studies can be developed to recognize the most significant ways to prevent work stress among nurses. Because nurse administrators are answerable to all sorts of environments within which patient care is offered and nursing is practiced, it is essential to explore strategies that can reduce these two concerns. By limiting the stressful nature of the administrators in the nursing profession, nurses tend to be more satisfied with their roles and positions. The role satisfaction in turn may lead to improving managerial characters that enhance the work environment of staff nurses. Interventions aimed at stopping burnout should be directed at the individual, societal, and organizational level. Most important, peer-support is quite significant in preventing stress and burnout. For instance, by sharing experiences among themselves, nurses begin to learn what should be done or what to be avoided when taking care of patients (Elis & Hartley, 2004) Conclusion It is clear that a positive social climate, fair treatment, and empowering leadership are the key factors in the prevention of stress and burnout. However, this does not imply that job demands should be ignored, for the reason that there is an upper limit to the workload a nurse can perform. The above presentation indicates that stress and burnout is linked to poor self-rated health, anxiety, and excessive depression. Reflecting peer-support groups on a problem-based technique is a useful and comparatively cheap tool in lessening work-related burnout and stress. References Ahola, K. (2007). Job Strain, burnout, and Depresivr symptoms: A prospective study among dentists. Journal of Affective Disorders. Bjelland, I., Haug, T. (2002), The Validity of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. An updatd literature review, Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Bryant C, Fairbrother G, Fenton P. (2000). The relative influence of personal and workplace descriptors on stress. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Elder, R., and Nizette, D. (2009). Psychiatric and mental health nursing. Australia: Elsevier. Elis, J., and Hartley, C. (2004). Nursing in Today's World: Trends, Issues, and Management. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Maslach C, and Jackson S. (1982). Burnout in health professions: A social psychological analysis. In: Sanders G, Suls J, editors. Social psychology of health and illness. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Maslach, C., and Leiter, M (2008). The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It. California: John Wiley & Sons. Bryant C, Fairbrother G, Fenton P. (2000). Burnout in the Nursing Proffesion Coping Strategies, Causes, and Costs. New York: the University of Michigan. Rowe , M. (1997). Hardiness, stress, temperament, coping, and burnout in health professionals. New York: Am J Health Behavior. Timby, B., and Smith, N. (2005). Essentials of Nursing: Care of Adults and Children. London: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More