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DiversityNursing Blog

How to Avoid Nursing Burnout

Posted by Sarah West APRN, FNP-BC

Mon, Jan 30, 2023 @ 10:54 AM

GettyImages-1433426991Nurse burnout is not a new concept. Nurses have been experiencing burnout for decades. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, more Nurses than ever are experiencing burnout, making it a hot topic in the Nursing community. Nurse burnout is often brought on by everyday stressors like insufficient staffing, increased workload, high patient acuity, and even verbal or physical abuse from patients. These stressors result in physical, mental, and emotional fatigue. As a result, Nurse burnout has been a significant factor in the number of Nurses leaving bedside Nursing or even the profession altogether.

Identifying the symptoms of Nurse burnout is the first step in preventing it from progressing. Nursing burnout is not one size fits all, and there can be many different ways it manifests itself. Nurses can experience various symptoms, including fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, anxiety, loss of desire to go to work, feeling underappreciated, overworked, or unsupported, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, and may even isolate themselves or withdraw from activities.

With an emotionally demanding and stressful job, it can be normal to experience some ill feelings toward your job from time to time. However, when the ill feelings begin to linger for weeks or start to affect your personal life or how you feel toward your job, it may be time to take some time for yourself and implement some of these strategies to reduce the risk of becoming burnt out.

Develop Strong Relationships with Coworkers

Nurses work in stressful situations but having a good support system with those you work with can help lighten the load and decrease the risk of experiencing burnout. This is because Nurses in positive environments feel more supported by the people around them. Having good support from Nurse friends can reduce stress levels and the emotional exhaustion you may encounter in the clinical setting.

Prioritize Physical and Mental Health

A great way to prevent Nursing burnout is to prioritize your physical and mental health. Nurses cannot pour from an empty cup. Practicing yoga, meditation, or journaling are all excellent ways to relieve stress and work through frustrations or concerns. Nurses should also try their best to eat well, drink plenty of water, get adequate sleep and participate in physical exercise several times per week.

Set Boundaries

Setting boundaries is essential to prevent burnout. Nurses often work long shifts with varying schedules, which can be challenging to navigate for some Nurses as they work opposite shifts than friends and family. Although working extra hours can benefit your wallet, it may have different personal benefits. Taking the time to disconnect from work stressors and spend time with loved ones is essential for a work-life balance. Sometimes it's better to leave work at work and avoid work-related conversations while on your time off.

Find Support with Loved Ones

The Nursing profession can come with a heavy mental load contributing to burnout. Finding support from family and friends is essential. If you experience trauma in your workplace, sometimes talking to a therapist or counselor can help with coping strategies and processing your feelings. 

Find a Creative Outlet

Having a creative outlet can help release endorphins that can help to prevent Nurse burnout. Research has shown that Nurses with creative endeavors have enhanced mood, more energy, stronger immune systems, and lower stress. Some Nurses enjoy activities like crocheting or knitting, painting, or pottery. So if you have been looking for a way to decrease work stress, now might be a perfect time to learn a new skill and pick up a new hobby.

Consider Advancing Your Career

If all else fails and you continue to experience symptoms of Nurse burnout from chronic job stress, consider going back to school to advance your Nursing career. By advancing your Nursing career, you can become a Nurse leader, Nurse Educator, or a Nurse Practitioner. These career paths can provide autonomy, a change of pace, and remove you from your current clinical environment. Advancing your career also gives you a unique advantage to change how we practice Nursing and help prevent Nursing burnout for future generations of Nurses.

It takes a team effort to prevent Nursing burnout. Administration and Nurse leaders must prioritize the well-being of their Nursing staff, and Nurses themselves must strive to care for themselves as well as they care for their patients.

Topics: burnout, self-care, Nurse burnout, nurse stress, healthcare burnout

Chief Wellness Officer - More Healthcare Organizations Are Adding CWO’s To Their C-Suite

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Fri, Oct 08, 2021 @ 03:06 PM

wellnessEven before the pandemic, healthcare providers experienced burnout and other negative mental health issues. Now more than ever, it is critical health systems take steps to support their staff's well-being.

Recently, more healthcare organizations have started to hire Chief Wellness Officers (CWO), as a strategy to address burnout, mental health, and compassion fatigue.

Jonathan Ripp MD, MPH, Chief Wellness Officer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said there were only a handful of Chief Wellness Officer positions when he was appointed to the role in May 2018. “There has been at least a dozen more who have been named in the past year, and several more places that are looking to create the position,” said Dr. Ripp. “I would not be surprised if, 10 years from now, it's commonplace for most large organizations to have a Chief Wellness Officer or equivalent, taking this challenge on, and doing so in a way that is effective.”

The ultimate goal of this role is to aid system-wide changes that enable staff to practice in a culture that prioritizes and promotes mental health and well-being.

The CWO is responsible for measuring well-being across their organization. Then, they create and implement wellness programs that address the current environment causing burnout and stress.

The hiring of a CWO is not a remedy all on its own. The CWO works in collaboration with other leaders and staff to prioritize well-being and would ultimately lower costs and improve patient care.

According to Beckers Hospital Review, burnout and depression result in major costs to health systems due to an increase in medical errors, reduced quality of care, and turnover. Research has found that for every dollar invested in wellness, hospitals can see a $3 to $6 return on investment.

Medical Schools are also following the hiring trend.

According to Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, medical students are more likely to experience burnout and depression than peers on different career paths. To confront the challenge head-on, they appointed their first Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Kelly Holder.

Holder said, "Mental and emotional wellness is essential to complete health. We simply cannot ignore this fact. I view my role as another way to serve the students, faculty and physicians in Brown’s medical school, and aid them in not just meeting their immediate self-care needs but also creating and developing plans that can help them learn more about how to take care of themselves in a way that's sustainable for a profession that demands a lot."

“Wellness and self-care is more important than ever before. These next few years will be critical for health care workers as we address the mental and physical burdens from COVID-19,” said George Washington University's Chief Wellness Officer, Lorenzo Norris, MD.

Hopefully this position sticks around, even after the pandemic passes, because burnout and mental health have been issues in the healthcare field all along.

Topics: mental health, compassion fatigue, burnout, hospitals, Nurse burnout, healthcare organizations, frontline workers, front line workers mental health, compassion fatigue in nursing, C-Suite, Chief Wellness Officers, CWO

Support Programs To Help Nurses Deal With Stress

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Thu, Jan 30, 2020 @ 02:46 PM

supportIn order for a healthcare system to be successful in having high engagement, job satisfaction and retention, the Nursing workforce should be able to combat the stressors of the job and burnout.

Nurses can better accomplish this by having help from peer support groups and mindfulness programs.

According to a report from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), between 35% and 54% of Nurses and Doctors experience burnout. Among medical students and residents, it is as high as 60%.

Symptoms, the NAM report said, include emotional exhaustion, cynicism, loss of enthusiasm and joy in their work and increasing detachment from their patients and the patients’ ailments. The problem has been linked to higher rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide.

Many institutions are implementing stress management and self-care programs to provide caregivers with easy-to-use tools and resources to build their resilience and help them cope.

The Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi implemented a new mindfulness program known as the ‘Compassionate Intension Program.’ The sessions introduce caregivers to mindfulness as a wellness tool they can utilize in both their workplace and personal lives. Currently, there are three sessions in place:

  • In Tune Tuesdays: Held biweekly, ‘In Tune Tuesdays’ are 20-minute classes designed to further educate attendees on mindfulness and how to improve mindfulness in their work environment. The classes are held at three different times to accommodate caregiver schedules.
  • Mindfulness Rounding: Also a biweekly activity, ‘Mindfulness Rounding’ features a team of mindfulness experts who visit clinical units. The experts conduct learning huddles and one-on-one conversations with caregivers, sharing quick tips. Their pocket cards or guides offer information on easy-to-implement mindfulness techniques.
  • Introduction to Mindfulness Workshop: This 8-week workshop, featuring 1-hour weekly sessions, was developed around the evidence-based standards of mindfulness experts, including, Jon Kabit-Zinn, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Center for Mindfulness, and Richard Davidson, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Healthy Minds and Oxford University’s Mindfulness Center. It offers a deeper dive into various mindfulness techniques.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Pediatric Nurse, Cheryl Connors, RN, MS, created a peer program to provide immediate support for health providers affected by stressful cases.

The Resilience in Stressful Events (RISE) program was developed with a Pediatric Chaplain, a Patient Safety Director, a Doctoral Student, and General Internist Albert Wu, MD, FACP.

According to the American College of Physicians, the RISE program provides a team of 39 peer responders who volunteer their time to support those who call the service. RISE team members include Nurses, Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Respiratory Therapists, Pastoral Caregivers, and Social Workers. They undergo didactic, video-based, and role-playing training.

The team has been called by more than 700 Johns Hopkins employees. The hospital previously had a program offering free professional counseling but, Ms. Connors said, “They actually prefer somebody who knows what they're going through—another health caregiver who can relate—and when they need it, not a week later.”

As supporters of patients and their families, Nurses deal with a lot of stress. Health systems can help their Nurses by surrounding them with support and offering them the tools to overcome and cope with stress so they can provide the best care for their patients and for themselves.

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Topics: peer support, burnout, self-care, mindfulness, managing stress, stressed nurses, support programs, nursing is stressful, nurse retention, stress management

Burnout in Nursing

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Wed, Oct 04, 2017 @ 11:24 AM

20170405_cover.jpgBurnout amongst Nurses isn't a new thing. In fact, it could be getting worse. With a combination of Nurses retiring and an influx of aging patients, this can become too much to handle and some will leave their profession.

According to Fierce Healthcare, several stressors lead to high levels of pressure and Nurse burnout.  These include:

  • High patient acuity (years ago, these patients would have been in the ICU)
  • High nurse-to-patient ratios (not acuity-based)
  • Multiple discharges and admissions (many nurses will discharge and admit an entire team of patients during their shift)
  • Lack of ancillary support and resources
  • Leaders who assume that nurses “can take one more patient”
  • Physicians who expect nurses to drop everything and attend to their needs
  • Interruptions while on their break
  • The expectation that nurses are all-giving.

A survey by travel nursing company RNnetwork, found that almost half of the Nurses they asked were considering leaving the profession. About a quarter said they felt overworked, 46 percent said their workloads had risen and 41 percent said they’d been harassed or bullied by managers or administrators. Making matters worse, with the aging of the baby boom generation, demand for health care is rising at the same time that large numbers of experienced Nurses are retiring.

Ashley Neuman, LPCC-S, one of Blazey’s colleagues in Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Enterprise, offered advice to caregivers during a 30-minute Wellness Connection presentation entitled “Managing Burnout in the Workplace: How Caregivers Cope.” She began with a definition of burnout, which can have three components:

  • Emotional Exhaustion – “Burnout can occur when you’re not just physically tired, but you are emotionally exhausted,” says Neuman. “It’s when you don’t have the motivation to get up, get moving and finish that one last clinical note. That emotional weight becomes heavier every day.”
  • Depersonalization – This happens when you have an unfeeling or impersonal response toward recipients of your service, care or instruction. “Nothing sparks passion or you don’t have that intrinsic motivation anymore,” she explains.
  • Dissatisfaction in Personal Achievements – Nurses who experience burnout may lack feelings of competence and achievement in their work. Neuman says, “You become a shell of yourself, losing interest in things you normally enjoy doing.” Maybe you dread going into a patient’s room or going home to make yet another dinner for your family.

Here are some tips that may help Nurses dealing with burnout.

1. Identify The best type of Nursing job for you

The field of Nursing is a large and diverse field. People in this profession might work in hospitals, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, office jobs, mobile units, private practices, home care, schools, the military, and even large public venues like amusement parks. And within the profession, there are medical specialties, such as pediatrics, cardiology, ophthalmology, geriatrics, and sports medicine. Spend some time figuring out what you like the most, and then focus your job search in this.

2. Search for workplaces with lower nurse-to-patient ratios

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) linked hospital Nurse staffing to nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction in their research on the topic of high Nurse turnover. "Nurses in hospitals with the highest patient-to-nurse ratios are more than twice as likely to experience job-related burnout and almost twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs compared with Nurses in the hospitals with the lowest ratios," JAMA reported.  

The more patients Nurses are expected to care for in a given shift, the less time they have per patient. This can make the usually empathetic task of caring for patients feel more robotic, stressful and incomplete.

3. take care of your own body first

Most Nurses are inclined to take care of others first and worry about themselves later. But in order to be an effective nurse with a long career ahead of you, it’s critical that you take care of your own body. Be sure to make time in your life for adequate exercise, good nutrition, and restful sleep. Bring nutritious protein-packed foods during your breaks. And after a long day on your feet, don’t be afraid to just relax!

4.Learn to say “No.”

masmedicalstaffing.com says, For professionals in healthcare, it’s often our natural inclination to jump right in when someone asks for our help.

However, if you already have an overloaded schedule, your first concern should be to keep yourself healthy—otherwise, you won’t be able to take care of your patients properly.

So instead of always extending a helping hand, take a moment to consider whether you really have the time and energy to do so without adding a bunch of new Nurse stress-inducers to your day.

And if you can’t help out, say so firmly yet politely.

The next two tips are from www.travelnursesource.com

5. Eat Healthy and Stay Hydrated

It’s not a secret that the food that you consume plays a big role in your mood and productivity. Increase your fruits and vegetable intake as well as whole grains and lean meat within your diet for an energy-boosting food palette. To increase productivity, eat food that is rich in fiber and carbohydrates. Stick to food with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids to help reduce depression and lift your mood.

 6. Socialize

Having a support system is an integral part of a healthy mental and emotional state. Take some time from your busy schedule to socialize with your friends and family to take a break from your stressful environment. It’s scientifically proven that when we are more likely be happy when we are surrounded by the people who we love – that is why humans are a social creature.

What are some ways you prevent burnout in your life? Comment your thoughts below!

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Topics: burnout, nursing careeer, Nurse burnout

Study: ICU Nurses Benefit From Workplace Intervention To Reduce Stress

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Wed, May 20, 2015 @ 02:25 PM

http://news.nurse.com 

stress resized 600A small study by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that a workplace mindfulness-based intervention reduced stress levels of employees exposed to a highly stressful occupational environment, according to a news release.

Members of a surgical ICU at the academic medical center were randomized to a stress-reduction intervention or a control group. The eight-week group intervention included mindfulness, gentle stretching, yoga, meditation and music therapy in the workplace. Psychological and biological markers of stress were measured one week before and one week after the intervention to see if these coping strategies would help reduce stress and burnout among participants.

Results of this study, published in the April 2015 issue of Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, showed levels of the chemical salivary alpha amylase, were significantly decreased from the first to second assessments in the intervention group. The control group showed no changes. Chronic stress and stress reactivity have been found associated with increased levels of salivary alpha amylase, according to the release. Psychological components of stress and burnout were measured using well-established self-report questionnaires. “Our study shows that this type of mindfulness-based intervention in the workplace could decrease stress levels and the risk of burnout,” one of the study’s authors, Maryanna Klatt, PhD, associate clinical professor in the department of family medicine at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, said in the release. “What’s stressful about the work environment is never going to change. But what we were interested in changing was the nursing personnel’s reaction to those stresses.”

Klatt said salivary alpha amylase, which is a biomarker of the sympathetic nervous system activation, was reduced by 40% in the intervention group.

Klatt, who is a trained mindfulness and certified yoga instructor, developed and led the mindfulness-based intervention for 32 participants in the workplace setting. At baseline, participants scored the level of stress of their work at 7.15 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most stressful. The levels of work stress did not change between the first and second set of assessments, but their reaction to the work stress did change, according to the release. 

When stress is part of the work environment, it is often difficult to control and can negatively affect employees’ health and ability to function, lead author Anne-Marie Duchemin, PhD, research scientist and associate professor adjunct in the department of psychiatry and behavioral health at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, said in the release. “People who are subjected to chronic stress often will exhibit symptoms of irritability, nervousness, feeling overwhelmed; have difficulty concentrating or remembering; or having changes in appetite, sleep, heart rate and blood pressure,” Duchemin said ih the release. “Although work-related stress often cannot be eliminated, effective coping strategies may help decrease its harmful effects.” 

The study was funded in part by the OSU Harding Behavioral Health Stress, Trauma and Resilience Program, part of Ohio State’s Neurological Institute.

Topics: employees, ICU, studies, Medical Center, health, healthcare, research, nurses, doctors, medical, burnout, stress, medical staff, surgical, stress levels, mindfulness

When 'Mean Girls' Wear Scrubs

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Jun 28, 2013 @ 02:57 PM

By Alexandra Wilson Pecci

Source: Health Leaders Media 

For many nurses, leaving high school doesn't mean leaving the bullies behind. Bullying has been called nursing's "dirty little secret," but judging by the numbers, it's hard to believe it could be kept secret at all.


Cheryl  Dellasega, PhD, RN, CRNP


Cheryl Dellasega, PhD, RN, CRNP

Most women can relate in some way to the 2004 Lindsay Lohan movie Mean Girls, in which her character encounters a group of bullying high school girls who say things like this: "Half the people in this room are mad at me, and the other half only like me because they think I pushed somebody in front a bus."

But while most women can leave memories like this behind when they graduate from high school, for those who enter nursing and become victims of nurse-on-nurse bullying, leaving high school hasn't made the mean girls disappear; they're just wearing scrubs now.

Bullying has been called nursing's "dirty little secret," but judging by the numbers, it's hard to believe it could be kept secret at all.

Twice as many nurses as other Americans have experienced bullying in the workplace. According to study of 612 staff nurses in theJournal of Nursing Management, 67.5% had experienced bullying from their supervisors, while 77.6% had been bullied by their co-workers. Compare that to the 35% of Americans outside healthcare who've reported workplace incivility, says the Workplace Bullying Institute.

Not only is bullying among nurses an issue, it's one that most nurse managers aren't equipped to handle properly, according to Cheryl Dellasega, PhD, RN, CRNP, co-author with Rebecca Volpe of the new book Toxic Nursing: Managing Bullying, Bad Attitudes, and Total Turmoil.

Bullying "is a huge problem now in the workplace," Dellasega tells me. "I think a lot of nurse managers don't get a lot of training in conflict resolution."That's especially true when they have little more management experience than any of their co-workers but were promoted to the role because they have a bachelor's degree and a few extra years of seniority, Dellasega says.

Dellasega's new book is a follow-up her to When Nurses Hurt Nurses: Recognizing and Overcoming the Cycle of Nurse Bullying, and aims to help managers and administrators understand and deal with bullying among their nurses.

In order to write the new book, the authors not only conducted a literature review, but also reviewed hundreds of blogs written by nurses about situations of conflict. By doing so, Dellasega and Volpe were able to identify key themes and scenarios that are common to bullying, as well as which groups of people were commonly involved in bullying.

Finally, the authors interviewed nurse management experts to give insight into dealing with such situations. "There were different pockets of nurses who seemed to be really engaged in the situation, as either a victim of the aggressor," Dellasega says. For example, new nurses are often victims.

"I think that brand new, young nurses [are] sort of the classic targets," Dellasega says. Often, these nurses are idealistic about their work and excited about how they're going to make a difference, but the older, established, more jaded nurses engage in bullying to knock them down a little. In fact, Dellasega says, sometimes the young nurses' preceptors are the ones who are doing the bullying because they feel like the role is a thankless one.

"I know that even…the literature…supports that preceptors often don't feel well prepared to do the job and often don't want to do the job," she says.

Another group of nurses who are often bullied are part-time, agency, or floater nurses who are picked on because they're not part of the regular nurses' clique.

Yes, clique. Dellasega says the regular nurses who are in the clique often make rude or sarcastic comments to or about the new person, or even go so far as not sharing supplies. Even nurses who come in from other floors can be left of out, even though they're just there to help.

Dellasega says that the cliques and bullying in a hospital comes with the same kind of baggage that most of us thought we left behind in high school. But for nurses, there's the added stake of patient safety. Although studies haven't explicitly linked increased bullying to decreased patient safety, research does say that happier nurses do their jobs more effectively. (Conversely, nurse burnout is linked to higher healthcare-associated infection rates).

"It's not a big leap to figure that when you go into work… if there's a toxic environment… you won't be able to give your full attention to patient care," Dellasega says.

Bullying also leads nurses to call in sick more often in order to take mental health days. Abusive behaviors can even cause nurses to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, or insomnia, a Joint Commission survey has found. Hospitals can also lose valuable employees to bullying and many nurses have left their jobs because of it.

"Things get to a point where they just can't take it," Dellasega says. Sometimes nurses feel like they're "going into the battle zone every day."

Nurse managers shouldn't let things get to that point. Managing relationships should be day-to-day work, not something that only happens during moments of high tension.

"Don't wait for it to get to the point that there's explosive conflict," Dellasega says.

Just as Dellasega discovered which nurses and situations tend to breed bullying, she and her co-author also discovered which environments are healthy. Bullying is rarer when there is a sense of teamwork, collaboration, and authentic communication with coworkers.

Dellasega says the ideal nurse manager is transparent, letting the staff ask questions and answering honestly, even if the answer is "I don't know, but I'll find out."

Feelings of empowerment are also important to reduce bullying and satisfaction. And upper hospital management should provide appropriate training for new nurse manager about how to effectively and positively deal with bullying.

Finally, Dellasega says nurses managers should monitor their own behavior to ensure that they're not engaged in bullying themselves, even if inadvertently. For example, sighing heavily after someone speaks could be interpreted as negative. Other behaviors to watch out for are favoritism, certain body language, gossiping, and speaking in a raised voice.

"I think nurse manager have to really monitor their own behavior and be cognizant of anything they might do," Dellasega says. "The nurse manager sort of sets the standards.

Topics: nurses, burnout, bullying, Mean Girls, coping

Evidence-Based Staffing Helps Eliminate Nurse Burnout And Hospital-Acquired Infections

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Jun 07, 2013 @ 02:40 PM

Nearly seven million hospitalized patients each year acquire infections while being treated for other conditions. The culprit, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control, is nurse burnout and has been linked to higher rates of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

“There is a tendency for nurses to get tired and want to take a break when they are taking on a heavier than normal load of patients, so they may cut corners to get work done,” says Cheryl Wagner, Ph.D., MSN/MBA, RN, associate dean of graduate nursing programs at American Sentinel University. “Nurses may ‘forget’ proper nursing care, such as dressing changes and emptying of drainage bags, or not pay attention to details such as hand washing and careful handling of contaminated articles, and this can be a major cause of hospital-acquired infections.”

Nurse burnout is that feeling of emotional exhaustion and disillusionment nurses feel about their current job that can creep up when working with heavy patient loads and under stress. These problems affect nurses both personally and professionally, and it may affect their patients as well.

A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used a survey tool called the Maslach Burnout Inventory to analyze nurses’ job-related attitudes. It then compared a hospital’s percentage of burnout nurses to its rates of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs).

The researchers found that every 10 percent increase in the number of high-burnout nurses correlated with one additional CAUTI and two additional SSIs per 1,000 patients annually.

At first glance, this might not seem like a big deal, but according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC), using the per-patient average costs associated with CAUTIs ($749 to $832 each) and SSIs ($11,087 to $29,443 each), researchers estimate that if nurse burnout rates could be reduced to 10 percent from an average of 30 percent, Pennsylvania hospitals could prevent an estimated 4,160 infections annually with an associated savings of $41M.

Impact of Work Environment
A study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) offers evidence that nurse-to-patient staff ratios has been linked with patient outcomes. It seems rather clear-cut that, from time constraints alone, fewer caregivers would translate into a lower standard of care. But this study goes a step further, suggesting the issue is not simply the number of nurses on staff, but the quality of the work environment.

When nurses feel there is a lack of teamwork, or that management’s values conflict with their own – putting financial concerns ahead of patient safety, for instance – stress can build up to the point that some nurses simply detach from their work.

Because Medicare and some private insurers are no longer reimbursing for CAUTIs and SSIs, it only makes sense that hospitals would do everything possible to eliminate these adverse events. That includes not only encouraging nurses to adhere to infection control practice guidelines, but also to improve the work environment as well.

“By reducing nurse burnout, we can improve the well-being of nurses while improving the quality of patient care,” says Dr. Wagner.

Dr. Wagner notes that one common method to reduce nurse burnout is to make sure that staff has adequate time for rest periods.

“This means ensuring that nurses get their days off and are not asked to work additional hours due to shortages, or that they get the regular breaks that they need throughout their workday,” she adds.

More importantly, Dr. Wagner believes that evidence-based staffing standards play an important role in reducing nurse burnout.

“Evidence-based staffing standards will help organizations to staff adequately and avoid nurse burn out, but this evidence must be brought forward by highly educated nurses so that it can have the proper impact.”

Dr. Wagner points out that just complaining about poor staffing does nothing to alleviate the situation and that the evidence needs to be presented by well-educated nurses in formal proposals to administrators.

The needs of the patients grow more complex in today’s health care environment and if a nurse is to be able to handle a multitude of patients with varying maladies, then they need to have the education that will give them the best abilities to improve patient outcomes.

Infection Control Resources
Dr. Wagner reminds nurses that there are simple steps they can take to help reduce the incidence of HAIs. Hand washing is at the top of the list. Other preventive measures bring a nurse’s role as patient advocate into play.

Dr. Wagner recommends that nurses conduct daily reviews of all their patients who have catheters and advocate for the removal of those that are no longer necessary.

Research shows that ‘forgotten catheters’ are often inappropriate catheters, so it’s important that nurses don’t assume that physicians are always aware of a patient’s catheter status.

This is just one way a nurse can identify a problem simply by implementing a daily practice, which increases the quality of patient care and deliver the most cost-effective nursing care possible.

Dr. Wagner encourages nurses to check online resources that recommend nursing interventions for preventing common types of HAIs. The CDC’s latest recommendations are compiled in the 2009 Guideline for Prevention of CAUTIs and in the Guideline for Prevention of Surgical Site Infection, 1999.

Nurses interested in planning, implementing and evaluating infection prevention and control measures should consider making this their career specialty. Earning a degree in this growing field, such as an MSN with an infection prevention and control specialization, is one way to ensure knowledge of best practices – and perhaps new career opportunities.

For more information or to register for American Sentinel University’s MSN, infection prevention and control specialization, visit http://www.americansentinel.edu/health-care/m-s-nursing/m-s-nursing-infection-prevention-and-control.

For more information or to register for American Sentinel University’s health care and nursing programs, visit http://www.americansentinel.edu/health-care.

About American Sentinel University
American Sentinel University delivers the competitive advantages of accredited online nursing degree programs in nursing, informatics, MBA Health Care, DNP Executive Leadership and DNP Educational Leadership. Its affordable, flexible bachelor’s and master’s nursing degree programs are accredited by the Commission for the Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). The university is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). The Accrediting Commission of DETC is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency and is a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

SOURCE: American Sentinel University

Topics: nurse, burnout, staffing, rest

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