Burnout Of A Nurse Essay

The Effects of Stress and Burnout on Nurses Worldwide

Going into my senior year of high school, I knew I wanted to intern at the local hospital. I had known for a few years now that I wanted to go into the healthcare field and experience what a day in the life of a nurse looked like. Everyone has encountered a nurse at some point, whether for a yearly checkup or emergency surgery. Nurses are usually friendly and seem to like their careers, or so I thought. When my internship started, I quickly learned just how busy nurses are. I found myself frequently following around nursing assistants, as the nurses were too busy running around like chickens with their heads cut off to have someone follow them. I would arrive at my internship at times and

While I don’t know what caused her to cry that day, I did follow her during my internship, and she was one of the nicest people I’ve met and had a great bedside manner. I could tell she loved her job, but there were things she encountered that clearly upset her and stressed her out. Part of this may have been that she worked on the oncology floor, which carries a lot of sick patients who you can’t help but feel for on top of the universal struggles that many nurses face. Since I am going to be entering the field within the next few years, I am curious as to how things such as burnout, stress, and transition shock affected nurses, especially those who have recently graduated and are entering the field during a time when there are nationwide nursing

According to the Well-Being Index, 38% of nurses are affected by burnout every year. Burnout is overall exhaustion emotionally, mentally, and physically that is caused by extreme stress for long periods of time. Not only does it affect their work, but it goes on to affect their personal lives. The World Health Organization has even deemed burnout an official medical diagnosis. Statistically, approximately 4 out of 10 nurses dread going to work, lack empathy when taking care of patients, and are no longer happy with their careers (Nurse Burnout). Many factors can cause burnout or increase its severity, such as long work hours, heavy workloads, unsatisfactory work environments, and consistently taking care of extremely ill people at times who may pass away. Signs of burnout include exhaustion, anxiety, lack of motivation, procrastination, and skipping work. As expected, nurse burnout can negatively affect not only the nurse’s health but their patients' as well, which is why it is such an issue that needs to be