Burnout in Nursing and Safety Issues

Introduction

Nursing is one of the most demanding yet critical professions; nurses have to work long hours with little free time. Therefore, in the long run, they are bound to burn out due to working without or with very little rest, compromising the safety of healthcare services. Suitable interventions are in order; such studies have been conducted to determine the appropriate course of action to curb physicians’ burnout. The project will focus on developing strategies to implement interventions to prevent burnout of physicians and nurses.

Hypothesis

Many research organizations have dedicated their effort to finding amicable solutions to combat nurse burnout. The studies aim to prevent nurse burnout while increasing efficiency and safety at the same time. As such, the researchers have proposed various solutions for the problem, including the provision of support, a delegation of responsibilities, identifying stressors, nurse schedules, inclusion in policy-making, nurse-to-patient ratios, leadership training, and reduction of non-clinical tasks.

Implementation Strategies

Training Nurse Directors

As much as the burnout and safety issues are dire, they must be addressed and settled simultaneously to ensure success and efficiency. Therefore, strategies that guarantee smooth transitions include, firstly, nursing directors being trained to identify and deal with nurses who exhibit signs of disengagement (Wei et al., 2020). The directors play a significant role in health care provision because they link hospital management and the nursing fraternity. A ten-day workshop training for the directors will be conducted from 1^st October. The training will equip the directors to identify and deal with worn-out nurses (Sulosaari et al., 2022). Burnout of physicians and nurses will consequently be reduced, improving healthcare and guaranteeing patients’ safety.

Increase Nurse Patient Ratio

Secondly, nurse-to-patient ratios are disadvantageous to both parties. Nurses are usually very few compared to the number of patients they nurse, and this is a critical issue because the nurses are more likely to get tired very fast and thus hinder better care provision. Usually, the ratio is almost 25:10,000, which means that for every nurse, there are 400 patients (Sulosaari et al., 2022). To solve this conundrum, researchers have suggested the employment of more nurses on a contract basis (Wei et al., 2020). The contracts are essential since they will act as a motivation to work hard to ensure contract renewal. More so, a hospital can utilize nurse-for-hire programs, which provide nurses for the hospital during an influx of patients to ease the pressure (Kim, 2020). Consequently, nurses will be relieved of the burden and thus reduce burnout while improving safety.

Inclusion in Decision-Making Discussions

Nurses are rarely involved in policy-making discussions, even when the policies are about them. As such, the policies made seldom consider their well-being, resulting in burnout. Therefore, nurses must elect representatives to represent them in stakeholders’ meetings (Wei et al., 2020). The election will be held between the 15^th and 20^th of October, after which they will be inducted into the board (Kim, 2020). Through this, nurses and physicians can forward their grievances directly to the relevant authorities. Management will be informed of the nurses’ plight and thus work toward implementing policies that improve their working conditions. Correspondinglythier productivity will be enhanced, thus guaranteeing better healthcare services.

Nurse Support Programs

Nursing is a very stressful profession as it requires long, consecutive working hours. As such, they barely have enough time for life outside the hospital, increasing burnout. Often it is forgotten that nurses are also people; thus, they get tired and weary (Sulosaari et al., 2022). Nevertheless, management will introduce programs focused on the nurses’ well-being from 20^th October. Often nurses experience wearing out because they do not know how to deal with the stressors they encounter while working (Wei et al., 2020). So these programs will work towards ensuring better health, adequate breaks, and how to deal with stressors at work. The programs will prioritize the welfare of the nurses, and they will be taught how to ensure self-care to prevent burnout (Dulko & Zangaro, 2022). The change will help the nurses and physicians to be able to adapt and manage the stressors, thus increasing their efficiency.

Shifts Rescheduling

In most states, if not all, nurses work 12-hour, sometimes consecutive shifts. Working long consecutive shifts has been the primary cause of fatigue among nurses (Wei et al., 2020). Often nurses are not involved in scheduling their shifts, and their life outside work is not considered. The human resource department will begin alternating the shifts so that none of the nurses has to work entire shifts consecutively (Sulosaari et al., 2022). The task will be planned and executed within five days from 10^th October. Nurses and physicians will be able to rest after working long hours, and this will be significant in reducing burnout (Sulosaari et al., 2022). The rescheduling will ensure the safety of both the patients and the medical personnel.

Implementation Timeline

This exercise aims to determine the most effective ways of preventing nurse burnout while increasing safety. The exercise entails a series of tasks that must be completed to ensure successful completion. The deliverables of this exercise include training directors, rescheduling shifts, collective decision-making, initiation of support programs, and increasing the nurse-to-patient ratio. Some of the dependency tasks of this exercise are shift rescheduling and nurse-to-patient ratio. For shifts to be rescheduled, the nurses must be enough. More so, support programs depend on nurse directors’ ability to identify their plight and decide on the appropriate course of action. The project will take three months to complete as summarised in table 1 since the tasks require resources and meticulous execution. The exercise will require funding from investors, governments, and various organizations.

Table 1: Project Timeline Table

Communication Plan

An effective communication plan will help to ensure that all stakeholders are adequately informed about the project. Varying modes of communication will be employed depending on the influence and effect of a stakeholder: press release, mail, direct, and virtual communication. Changes implemented will affect various stakeholders in different capacities depending on how they relate to the project (Darmaningrat et al., 2019). Stakeholders include the government, physicians, patients, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and investors. They have varying influences on the project; for instance, the government and investors have the most significant influence on the project because they are the primary determinants of its implementation. The most affected participants are the patients and nurses whose welfare will be improved. Influential people who are not stakeholders will be communicated to through mail (Darmaningrat et al., 2019). The federal and state governments control resources, and thus, relevant authorities will be fully briefed regularly using performance reports and direct communication. Each stakeholder has a different motivator; however, they are all driven by the need for quality healthcare for all patients.

Conclusion

Nurse and physician burnout is the leading cause of reduced medical care. The burnout impedes their performance, compromising their safety and that of their patients. Nonetheless, studies have been steered to determine suitable interventions to prevent wearing out of medical personnel. More so, strategies have been developed to ensure efficient implementation of the interventions. Additionally, an implementation timeline and communication plan have been developed to ensure that the project is implemented smoothly. At the same time, the stakeholders are kept informed on the project’s progress.

References

Darmaningrat, E. W. T., Muqtadiroh, F. A., & Bukit, T. A. (2019). Communication management plan of ERP implementation program: A case study of PTPN XI. Procedia Computer Science, 161, 359-366. Web.

Dulko, D., & Zangaro, G. A. (2022). Comparison of factors associated with physician and nurse burnout. Nursing Clinics, 57(1), 53-66. Web.

Kim, J. S. (2020). A path analysis of emotional labor strategies, stress, and burnout among hospital nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(1), 105-112. Web.

Sulosaari, V., Unal, E., & Cinar, F. I. (2022). The effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions on the psychological well-being of nurses: A systematic review. Applied Nursing Research, 151565. Web.

Wei, H., Kifner, H., Dawes, M. E., Wei, T. L., & Boyd, J. M. (2020). Self-care strategies to combat burnout among pediatric critical care nurses and physicians. Critical Care Nurse, 40(2), 44-53. Web.