Nurse Burnout and the effects on Patient Care. When an individual becomes a nurse, beforehand they are aware of the job demand before entering the career, however, they are not aware that these demands could possibly lead to what is called Nurse Burnout. Its reported that 24 percent of emergency room nurses are at high risk for burn out (Wilkinson,2014). Nurse burnout is defined as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment” (Vahey 2004). As described by Vahey, this syndrome produces negative outcomes for the nurse who experiences burnout. The negative outcomes include, alcohol and drug abuse, psychological distress, somatic complaints, work tardiness, high turnover rates for employers, employee
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Reducing time with patients, can reduce the quality of care that can be rendered. A nurse’s job is to provide care and to keep a patient safe and if the nurse cannot do this they will become dissatisfied with their career and leave the nursing field all together. The Most alarming effect that nursing burnout has on patient quality care is that it contributes to medical errors. Patient Safety is the nurse’s main priority, but what about the nurse’s safety? When a nurse is exhausted, his or her judgement may not be as sound as it was at the beginning of an 18-hour shift. Shouldn’t the nurse safety be a priority too? Shouldn’t hospital management be concerned with the judgement of a nurse that has worked 18 hours that they are asked to stay another 4 hours to cover because the hospital is understaffed? After all the nurse is administering the health care directly to the patient and if patient care is a priority the nurse providing the care should be a priority as well. It is evident that Nurse burnout adversely affects the quality of patient care, and something must be done about …show more content…
Being that there are nurse staff shortages, the patient load has increased per nurse, which decreases the amount of time nurse may have with each individual patient. A Research study conducted among Emergency room nurses showed that the nurses who participated in the study reported their work environments to be “chaotic, fast paced and the work load was affected their caring capacity” (Enns, 2016). These nurses stated that they felt that they did not have enough time to address the patient needs. In the Article some nurses stated that at times they were only able to provide minimal care because of their busy workloads (Enns, 2016). The staffing shortages due to high turnover rated leave the current nurses left to fill in the Gaps. Staff shortages have also contributed to nurse to patient ratio issues. If a nurse has too many patients the quality of care per patient decreases. "In 2004 The state of California became the first state to implement the minimum nurses to patient staff requirements in acute care hospitals " (Aiken, 2010). A study was conducted in 2006 to compare the quality of care of patients and the effect on nursing staff in hospitals that implemented minimum nurse-to -patient staffing requirements verses those that did not, California was included in this study as well as two additional hospitals who did not implement
Reducing time with patients, can reduce the quality of care that can be rendered. A nurse’s job is to provide care and to keep a patient safe and if the nurse cannot do this they will become dissatisfied with their career and leave the nursing field all together. The Most alarming effect that nursing burnout has on patient quality care is that it contributes to medical errors. Patient Safety is the nurse’s main priority, but what about the nurse’s safety? When a nurse is exhausted, his or her judgement may not be as sound as it was at the beginning of an 18-hour shift. Shouldn’t the nurse safety be a priority too? Shouldn’t hospital management be concerned with the judgement of a nurse that has worked 18 hours that they are asked to stay another 4 hours to cover because the hospital is understaffed? After all the nurse is administering the health care directly to the patient and if patient care is a priority the nurse providing the care should be a priority as well. It is evident that Nurse burnout adversely affects the quality of patient care, and something must be done about …show more content…
Being that there are nurse staff shortages, the patient load has increased per nurse, which decreases the amount of time nurse may have with each individual patient. A Research study conducted among Emergency room nurses showed that the nurses who participated in the study reported their work environments to be “chaotic, fast paced and the work load was affected their caring capacity” (Enns, 2016). These nurses stated that they felt that they did not have enough time to address the patient needs. In the Article some nurses stated that at times they were only able to provide minimal care because of their busy workloads (Enns, 2016). The staffing shortages due to high turnover rated leave the current nurses left to fill in the Gaps. Staff shortages have also contributed to nurse to patient ratio issues. If a nurse has too many patients the quality of care per patient decreases. "In 2004 The state of California became the first state to implement the minimum nurses to patient staff requirements in acute care hospitals " (Aiken, 2010). A study was conducted in 2006 to compare the quality of care of patients and the effect on nursing staff in hospitals that implemented minimum nurse-to -patient staffing requirements verses those that did not, California was included in this study as well as two additional hospitals who did not implement