Nursing Burnout

Nursing Burnout

         One of the most serious cases in nursing, that can affect a nurses career is “Nursing Burn-Out”. Burn-out is something more than just a day of stress. It is all of those days of so much stress integrated with each other and then evolves into something even bigger. It has become a phenomenon in the healthcare community. Everybody gets stressed out sometimes, but this is an intense stress experience on a regular basis over a long period of time can become burn out. It is defined as the state of mental, physical, and emotional stress resulting in a chronic state of pressure or stress at work and is associated with individuals who do “people work” (Aiken and Sloane, 1997), a category into which nurses obviously fall into. Many nurses and even nursing students suffer from this rigor and intensity of their work or program. The number of nurses suffering from burnout has increased over the years, possibly also causing the negative effects on patient care, working environments, and staffing shortages.

        In the recent demographics shown in the article of “Where have all the nurses gone” Current nurses that are practicing report hight rates of job dissatisfaction resulting to 1 out of 5 nurses wanting to quit nursing in the next five years (Dworkin, 2002)— All of which are caused by the effects of “Burnout”. Burnout is associated with nurses wanting to not report for duty, dissatisfaction when doing their job, and even the increasing turnover rates and the lack of commitment to their jobs (Katisfaraki, 2013). If a nurse does become ‘burned out’, they’re undivided attention would not be properly distributed between their career, patients, and to themselves. They may not take care of their patients and could make a substantial mistake with the patients medication administration. One misstep with one’s supposed dosage of medication can cost the life of one person. Based on a study that was performed in the United Stated by Dr. Jeannie Cimiotti, hospitals with burn-out rates among the nurses has higher levels of UTI and surgical infections (World, 2012). The effects of burnout does not only affect the nurse, it also affects their assigned patients, their colleagues, and even their own family. It often leads to extensive emotional exhaustion and depression, that can effect relations and communication between the nurse effected and the person they are communicating with. Burnout occurs when a person does not have not yet developed coping skills to deal with the demands of the work they are performing; it is also the chronic stressed caused by the high demands of a job. Some causes include the long hours, not having enough or the proper equipment, having inadequate staffing and caring in the hospital, and the improper distribution of the work loads and hours per nurse.