Dear Mrs. Anderson, I really enjoyed the last week’s hospital staff meeting. I particularly enjoyed your presentation on infection control and found it very informative. I think that this training helped the nursing staff understand the importance of infection control and emphasized the hospital policy on the subject. After the meeting last week, the topic of stress in the nursing community came up, and many of the nursing staff came to me to talk about the stress they experience in their day to day routine. As a group we discussed workload and the amount of staff available to get work done. Many of my colleagues have voiced concerns that there is not enough to staff to ensure that all aspects of patient care are completed in their shift. …show more content…
This can negatively affect the level of care provided to their patients. In some cases, nurses who experience high levels of stress at work can become physically ill or experience emotional “burnout”. In order to reduce some of these problems, nurses should consider taking a variety of steps to cope with stress, including, Exercise: Stay in good physical condition by using a fitness center if available or by simply taking a walk or using the stairs during a break. Talk: Choose a friend, family member or co-worker with whom to share concerns. Talking about a problem can help reduce feelings of stress. Take a break: Although leaving patients and job responsibilities for a few minutes during the work shift may seem difficult, it is a good strategy for dealing with stress. Nurses who take a break can return more relaxed and better prepared to provide high quality patient care. Sleep: Stress and worry can make it difficult to sleep, leading to fatigue and more stress. Nurses should establish a solid sleep schedule and stick to it. Nurses may face many situations each day that are out of their control, such as hospital policy changes and staffing difficulties. By maintaining a positive attitude, staying healthy and talking about concerns with trusted colleagues, nurses can better deal with potential stressors. In the long run this will lead to better patient care, and increased work
There are many concerns the scenario illuminates for practicing nurses. Prior to going out on placement to a healthy facility,
The idea of shift work is a common one, but for nurses this is not a simple changing of staff during a certain time, change of shift signifies a time of purposeful communication between nurses and patients, in order to promote patient safety and best practices (Caruso, 2007). During this time, there is the possibility for this critical opportunity to relay important information to become disorganized by extraneous information, rather than concentrating on the needs of the patient (Sullivan, 2010). Often the patient is left out of the conversation, and is not a part of the process. Patients and families can play an important role in making sure these transitions in care are safe and effective (AHRQ, 2013).
According to Stanton, low-staffed hospitals resulted in higher incidences of poor patient outcomes. Such as, UTIs, pneumonia, and fall. However, poor patient outcomes not only result from short-staffed nurses, but can also result from inadequate nursing assistants as well. NAs play a great role in providing basic daily care of patients. These professionals are very crucial in the healthcare industry but sadly, there are NA shortages.
( You, Aiken, Sloane, Liu, He, Hu,& et al. ,2013). Another studies revealed the effects of burnout on quality of nursing care. One study show that the higher the burnout level among critical care nurse the poor quality care provided which
Before conducting this research I hypothesized that physicians’ experiences could help improve health policy and health law. My hypothesis was based on the fact that physicians have first-hand experience with what is going on in the healthcare system and are the ones that have to carry out health laws and policies. So, by listening to the experiences of physicians, policymakers could gain insight on what is working, not working and what needs to be improved within the healthcare system. The question that this study focused on was what is the hospitalist experience with New York’s Family Health Care Decisions Act (2010) at the University of Rochester Medical Center? In regard to this Act I wanted to see how using hospitalists’ experiences could be used to improve the Act.
The strains on the healthcare field can eventually lead to physical,mental and emotional exhaustion also known as burnout. As caretakers,educators,and lifelines, nurses are responsible for the many roles they carry as they continue to give care to patients day in and day out. One of the most common reasons nurses are stressed is the patient to nurse ratio. For instance, a nurse may be taking care of 6 patients when he or she should only be taking care of 4.
Each morning patients came in for assessment and the treatment team developed or altered existing treatment protocols. I longed to be part of this team, working to stabilize each patient so they could return home to pursue their goals. The nurses stood out to me as the team members at ground zero in the unit, working directly with patients, and advocating for them in meetings. As a Nurse Practitioner, I will provide this same standard of holistic care to my patients, taking into consideration their biological, social, psychological and cultural needs while developing and implementing treatment decisions.
The annual NHS retreat and Mrs. Schwenk’s final retreat as a member of the NHS chapter was far from dull. This year’s NHS chapter consist of 27 individuals with 25 attending the retreat. The NHS members were Daniel Kennedy, Sydney Nelson, Dante Arzani, Blake Kozak, Josh Burkhead, Taylor Hatfield, Cynthia Thomas, Carissa Albers, Libby Kennedy, Shai Major, Cheyenne Loomis, Alyssa Reed, Nick Ellis, Trevor Thornburg, Hannah Grandstaff, Brooklyn McCuddin, Jaylan White, Zach Goering, Elijah Elliott, Sydney Nelson, Remington Hutton, Ally Bedwell, and Saylor Vodraska This year 's NHS retreat was the last retreat for our head counselor Brianna Schwenk. The NHS retreat was said to be one of the best turnouts and the best group of kids that were there.
“Better Nurse Staffing and Nurse Work Environments Associated with Increased Survival of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients” states that, “In 2012, registered nurses had 11,610 incidents of MSDs (musculoskeletal disorder), resulting in a median rate of eight days away from work. Among all healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, there were 65,050 nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses that required a median of seven days away from work.” While we are unable to attribute every workplace related injury to stress, burnout, and poor work conditions, it is easy to correlate extreme fatigue with decrease in concentration and increase in avoidable
Short staffing decreases the quality of care provided to each patient, as nurses develop burnout with increase workload. Implementing helpful measures can decrease nurse burnout and the affect it has on patient outcomes. For example, PCSN (patient care support nurses) are a useful resource to provide when nursing staff is low. Nurses can also benefit from applying time management measures during their shifts, such as prioritizing and delegating. The impacts of short staffing may be minimal on patient care if these the proper measures are implemented.
Large patient loads combined with a stressful work environment affects nurses’ abilities to provide quality healthcare. Patient safety should never be compromised. It is our responsibility to learn from research and improve our current nurse staffing ratios. Nurse staffing is key and affects all other outcomes. Without nurses administering the right treatment at the right time to the right patients, all other healthcare interventions are not effective.
It is important to identify why nurses are becoming stressed and how to reduce work related stress. The past 10 years there has been an increase in stress levels for nursing staff. In 2001 a survey was conducted by “American Nurses Association”. The study results showed that 70.5% of nurses cited the acute and chronic effects of stress and overwork among their top three health and safety
An ordinary day of a nurse is filled with enduring hours of physical, mental, and emotional work. A nurse always has to be on their feet and ready to go. They must be ready face the obstacles placed upon them, and make life and death decisions in the snap of a finger. This is not an easy job by any means, and can leave you run-down at the end of the day. It may feel as though the day is a never-ending cycle, but it is so worth the health and happiness of others in
Nurses fatigue is growing problem nurse face each day in the healthcare environment, and he can be caused by long hours, sleep deprivation, and possibly by accepting extra assignments can be dangerous for both nurses and patient. These inadequacies can result in major implications for the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care which can lead to fatalities. (American Nurses Association, 2014). In my experience, being fatigued from working much 12-hour shifts consecutively was very difficult as I felt extremely tired, resulting in lack of focus, missing important details during the handing over the process with impaired cognitive functioning. This I found was detrimental to the patients and myself as it impedes quality and has a deleterious effect on patient safety.
Through intuition, superior nurses save lives and prevent further illness. Physical Endurance Maintaining physical health is a vital part of enduring the stressful and high-energy demands of the nursing profession. Nurses lift heavy patients, move weighty medical equipment, and may spend 12 hours or more on their feet during a shift. Accomplished nurses observe a healthy diet and perform regular exercise.