Burnout Issues Among Nurses: The Effect of Wage Range

Research Question

Does the wage range have an influence on stress and burnout outcomes among nurses at hospitals?

Tentative Claim/Thesis (Situated in a Valid Debate)

Various studies investigate the issues that nurses experience in medical organizations. It can be stated that hospitals that created efficient nurse staffing, wage range, and work environment receive better nurse results, such as higher job satisfaction, more effective patient treatment, and higher retention levels among nurses. However, there is a lack of attention to stress and burnout issues that might be directly influenced by the salary range of nurses. Therefore, the value of the commission of nurses should be researched against burnout issues to understand whether executives of hospitals need to consider it or not to improve the state of nurses at medical organizations.

Rationale and Research Plan – Background, Overview, Approach, Research Plan, and Possible Complications

Background and overview

The background of the proposed research lies around the author’s interaction with different nurses during life. Some nurses have previously mentioned and discussed burnout problems and stress that they have faced due to exhaustive working hours and overworking. Some medical employees reported that they feel more depressed and burned out due to low compensation that affects their job satisfaction. However, many studies did not research the wage range separately from other job-related factors that impact burnout levels. The possible research question is also supported by the National Nursing Engagement Report that has indicated 15.6% of nurses feel burnout and 41% of them feel unengaged, pointing to the alarming problem (Brusie, 2019). Burnout of nurses might also affect patient outcomes; therefore, the issue is connected to other problems that might be mitigated if executives are well-informed about wage satisfaction among nurses.

Approach, research plan, and complications

To find the approach to investigate the problem, it is essential to have good connections within the site so that nurses will be open about their burnout problems and salary expectations. Conducting research requires consent from executives and nurses and ensures that the research will be anonymous and transparent to present results. It is crucial to gather data for the research plan to understand which factors might also impact the burnout and should be included in the study. The supportive and opposing views will discover information that should be researched as they might suggest possible steps within the investigation. Among complications that might appear during the study might be the unwillingness of nurses to disclose information and participate in the research, lack of support from the management of the hospital. However, if conducted properly, the research should give reliable results.

Initial Source Collection Table: Supporting and Opposing (Synthesis Matrix)

Supporting Position: Burnout of nurses at hospitals affects different stakeholders, including nurses, patients, executives of the organizations. One supporting point that might be suggested is that the satisfaction of nurses from their income might lead to better outcomes for patients and nurses’ retention and job satisfaction.	Possible Opposing Viewpoints: Recent studies sometimes advocate the view that other factors, such as work environment and nurse staffing, might impact the burnout rates among nurses more substantially than the wage range that different nurses have (McHugh & Ma, 2014). This is an opposing viewpoint that should be addressed.
Source Quoted with Signal Phrase and Citation: Qu and Wang (2015) after researching a similar topic state that “monthly income showed significant differences in the dimension of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization… The lower monthly income the nursing staff gets, the higher the degree of depersonalization they report” (p. 65).	Source Quoted with Signal Phrase and Citation: McHugh and Ma (2014) report the following view: “We discovered that wage was associated with job dissatisfaction and intent to leave but had little influence on burnout, while work environment and average patient-to-nurse ratio still have considerable effects on nurse outcomes” (p. 72).

References

Brusie, C. (2019). Study reveals alarming statistics on nurse burnout. Nurse.org. Web.

McHugh, M. D., & Ma, C. (2014). Wage, work environment, and staffing: effects on nurse outcomes. Policy, politics & nursing practice, 15(3-4), 72–80. Web.

Study on the relationships between nurses’ job burnout and subjective well-being. Qu H., & Wang, C. (2015). Study on the relationships between nurses’ job burnout and subjective well-being. Chinese Nursing Research, 2(2–3), 61-66. Web.