Develop a 2 to 3-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following: Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
Nurse Burnout as a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Nurse burnout is an issue of concern in health care characterized by physical and mental exhaustion (Yeh et al., 2021). Nurse burnout is related to a number of stressors within the work settings, especially for nurses working in general healthcare facilities. The major causes of nurse burnout include a lack of work-life balance, work and family conflict, a lack of supervisor support, and an increased number of patients (Yeh et al., 2021). Other factors contributing to nurse burnout in health care include long working hours as the demand for nursing role grows, lack of enough sleep, and work-related pressure such as mental and physical strain from caring for patients.
How Nurse Burnout Impacts My Organization
Nurse burnout affects over half of the nurses today (Kelly et al., 2021). Unmanaged nurse burnout has a negative impact on nurses as nurses are the basic unit of support for healthcare system operations. Subsequently, this negative impact on nurses negatively affects the performance of healthcare organizations. Essentially, burnout causes detachment from work and life, leading to depersonalization, reduced professional efficacy, and further mental and emotional exhaustion (Yeh et al., 2021). As such, nurse burnout is associated with high nurse turnover rates. Notably, nurse turnover rates hit a high rate of 18.7 in 2021, resulting in increased costs of hiring new nurses at $60,000 a nurse (Pickle, 2021). Besides nurse turnover, nurse burnout is also a leading cause of reduced efficiency (Kelly et al., 2021). These factors result in reduced quality of care, risk of negative treatment outcomes, and higher mortality rates in health care. Hire our assignment writing services in case your assignment is devastating you.
A Summary of Two Articles on Nurse Burnout
The two selected articles on nurse burnout are those by Oliveira et al. (2019) and Haar & Mowat (2022).
Article 1
Oliveira et al.’s (2019) article is an integrative literature review paper that identifies approaches for preventing nursing burnout syndrome and provides directions for future research to reduce burnout for nurses and in professional care settings. Based on a review of papers collected, the paper identifies various strategies that can effectively reduce burnout in nursing and other healthcare settings.
Article 2
The article by Haar and Mowat (2022) explores whether focusing on the practices that focus on human resources can help reduce and manage nurse burnout. The article notes that attaching meaning to the work of nurses and creating a work environment that creates a work-life balance can help manage emotional and physical exhaustion, hence reducing nurse burnout.
How Nurse Burnout is Addressed in Other Healthcare Organizations
A majority of healthcare organizations are addressing nurse burnout by focusing on the recognition of the role nurses play in healthcare. Healthcare leaders are adopting various recognition strategies, such as rewarding nurses for their roles (Pickle, 2021). Healthcare organizations have also created programs that provide retention bonuses for nurses to avoid turnover rates related to nurse burnout.
Strategies Used to Address Nurse Burnout and Their Impact on the Organization
Various strategies that can be applied to address the issue of nurse burnout have been identified. Notably, Haar and Mowat (2022) suggest focusing on human resources practices such as the creation of a balanced work-life plan for nurses. Additionally, Oliveira et al. (2019) provide solutions to nurse burnout, including improving the work environment, nurse incentives, and evaluation of stress levels among nurses.
The strategies identified in the reviewed articles, especially incentives, nurse bonuses, and evaluation of nurse stress, have both negative and positive impacts on our healthcare organization. These strategies can help my healthcare organization retain its qualified staff with improved performance and brand image. However, such initiatives will add to the organization’s operational expenses, thus reducing profit margins.
Conclusion
In conclusion, nurse burnout negatively impacts nurses’ physical and mental well-being as well as patient and organizational outcomes. Focusing on human resources for health practices can help manage nurse burnout and improve the efficiency of nurse professionals. Additionally, further research is needed on the impact of burnout on nurses and patient outcomes and how to manage the syndrome effectively.