Fatigue Theory In Nursing

Due to the rapidly changing health care system and the reduction of resources, nursing demands are greater which has led to work related stress and ultimately nursing burnout. (Hayes, Douglas, & Bonner, 2014; Kushner & Ruffin, 2015; Laschinger et al., 2003; Slatten, Carson & Carson, 2011). Nursing burnout impacts both the performance and profitability of a healthcare organization in addition to adversely affecting patient outcomes (Jennings, 2008; Kushner & Ruffin, 2015; Laschinger et al., 2003). Ordinarily for nurses, making a difference by caring for and helping others is gratifying (Hayes et al., 2014; Slatten et al., 2011); however nurses have had to endeavor several unfavorable circumstances such as long work hours, compassion fatigue, physical labor, human adversities, staffing shortages, lack of breaks, advanced technology, and poor interpersonal work relationships (Hayes et al., 2014; Jennings, 2008; Slatten et al., 2011); thus the effects of sustained exposure to increasingly demanding professional work conditions brought on by doubt and concern results in decreased nursing satisfaction, lack of perceived support, psychological difficulties such as demoralization,

This chapter provides a background of nurse burnout and their effect on quality of care

“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

The idea of how nurses can conduct themselves in a daily basis for some can be viewed as they have it easy or least make it look easy and for others it’s world’s best job. The truth is being a nurse is very difficult job and it can be very labor intensive and very rewarding at the same time. Just think every time you go into the doctor’s office or have an overnight stay in the hospital what all to do your nurse during their shift? In an ideal world and scenario nurses have the perfect amount staff with all the proper equipment readily available. The truth of the matter is that in most cases nurses are short staffed and must maximize their time effectively and effortlessly unbeknown to patients.

The problem of nurse fatigue continues to plague healthcare organizations worldwide because of long working hours, accepting extra assignments and sleep deprivation that can be dangerous for both nurse and patient. These inadequacies cause compromises patient

I retrieved this eBook from the Kaplan Library. It contains a plethora of information for aspiring nurses and nurses currently employed. This source will support my thesis by discussing the psychological and physiological stress nurses are placed under every day. However, this source could backfire because the author believes job satisfaction

Burnout is classified viewed in three phases. The first phase of burnout is the arousal phase. The nurse shows anxiety, insomnia, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, feelings of beings overwhelmed, frustration, sadness, and new physical symptoms, such as headaches and stomach problems. If the nurse does not recognize that these symptoms require intervention, the second phase is energy conservation. In this phase, the nurse starts to call in sick to work; o she may be chronically late getting to duty. Deadlines are not met, a cynical or resentful attitude develops, a persistent sense of fatigue pervades both are the nurse’s personal and professional’s life.

Panagiota Copanitsanou, Nikolaos Fotos, and Hero Brokalaki mentioned that negative effects may lead to poor patient outcomes due to the increased mortality, complications, and readmissions. With that being said, it is vital for nurses to work in an environment that is well staffed and trained without the use of having nurses work more hours than they already are required to. It is known that having good management, balanced work schedule, and a safe environment all contributes to nurses with less patient burnout which then can provide a higher quality of

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between nurses' duty hours, and patient outcome, emphasizing increased negative risk from nurse fatigue, relating to patient injury or death.

According to the data from Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professions (2013), there were 2.8 million Registered Nurses (RNs) and 690,000 Licensed Practice Nurses (LPNs) were working in the period from 2008-2010, in the United States. The nursing workforce grew substantially in 2000s, by RNs growing by more than 24.1 percent and LPNs by more than 15.5 percent. The population of nurses are facing multiple challenges at the workplace, such as shortage in staffing, nurse turnover, increased workload, long working hours, poor relationship with co-workers, lack of support from the management, and eventually these challenges create high level of nurse burnout. It is estimated that job- related burnout measure using the Maslach Burnout inventory – Human Services Survey, 36.5 % of nurses having high level of burnout. The researchers at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing, estimates if nurse burnout reduces by 10 %, could prevent thousands of hospital acquired infections and reduce the health care expense (Potera, 2012).

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).

that while nurses plays a very important role in improving the health care system of the country,

From the early beginnings of nursing to present day, safe nurse staffing ratios have been a heated debate. High patient to nurse ratios have been the norm for over a century throughout the United States. As time went on nursing care, technology, cost containments and patient acuity changed drastically further fueling the need for safer staffing levels. Safety in numbers has been the battle cry of nurses across the United States since the 1990’s when cost containment strategies changed the way hospitals managed costs by regulating patient admissions, lengths of stays, patient acuity and training requirements for patient care. Through the 1990’s thousands of burnt out and frustrated RN’s, LPN/LVN’s, CNA’s and

Great job on your post, you made some really good points and subjections to help prevent safety issues related to nurse fatigue. In addition, Middaugh (2016), states that according to the ANA, “nurses and employers have a joint responsibility to reduce risks from nurse fatigue and help create a work-life balance”. In fact, during one of my rotation, I heard a nurse complaining of been tired after working 2 days on the row and was on her third shift back to back. She was supposed to be off that day but another nurse couldn’t be at the hospital so she was called in to replace that nurse. As we know, back to back shift increase the risk of errors and compromise the patient health from error with no direct injuries to the point of causing death.

Just like a saw needs to stop being used in order to be sharpened, a nurse needs time off to recuperate; it’s as simple as that (Covey, 1989). It is important not to burn the candle at both ends, working more than the designated shifts and longer than 12 hours should be avoided. An example used regarding medication errors and working too many hours involves a nurse working a double shift on a pediatric oncology unit didn’t correctly prime an IV line and caused cardiac arrest in a patient (Kelley, 2004). Although nurses work three days a week, their hours remain the same as other full time employees that work the typical 5 day schedule. A nurse’s time off should be valued because they are the last line for patient care, they are the ones administering the medication the doctor prescribes and the pharmacy makes (Kelley, 2004). They need to be cognizant of not only their mistakes, but the mistakes of those making the decisions before them. Therefore, nurses should not be constantly asked to work overtime because that is how mistakes are missed or made (Kelley, 2004). Nurses should sharpen their saws between shifts and their days off, only then can they perform their absolute