Stress And Burnout

Working in the healthcare field can be overwhelming because of the continuous exposure to stressful events such as illnesses and death. Additionally, workers may be exposed to high demands, long working hours, team relationship issues, and shortage of staff. To contribute with tension, healthcare employees may also be subjected to daily unrelated work problems such as lack of personal time, family and financial issues. The imbalance between the nurses’ work environment and personal life coupled with multiplicities stress sources leave them at high risk for job dissatisfaction and burnout. The nursing profession itself can be very challenging, and because of high demands nurses should find a balance between their career and their personal life in order to prevent stress and burnout.

Work-related stress is “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work.” (Burke, 2013). Work intensification, or work overload, is increasing due the diversity in patient’s acuity coupled with shorter hospital stays. These greatly affect the nursing staff because they face shorter deadlines, which leaves an unpleasant feeling if one or more goals are not met. Unfortunately, because of how facilities get reimbursed for care, nurses are faced with this problem and there is no immediate