Capstone Project Change Proposal Presentation for Faculty Review and Feedback

Capstone Change Project Evaluation Plan

Organizational Leadership Approach to Improve Retention of Nurses Related to Burnout

Studies have shown high rates of burnout among nurses. Burnout in nurses results from long-term stress in the workplace, and consists of three dimensions namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, which can lead to decreased work efficiency, increased absenteeism, reduced liability and efficiency, more conflicts, job change, interpersonal conflicts with colleagues, increased health costs, personnel turnover, behavioral and physical changes, substance abuse, and reduced quality of services provided to patients followed by patient dissatisfaction with medical services, all of which have a negative effect on patients. Therefore, identification and prevention of burnout is of paramount (Ghavidel, Fallahi-Khoshknab, Molavynejad & Zarea, 2019). Also, if burnout is not rectified over time, many nurses will leave their organizations or the nursing profession entirely if burnout is experienced constantly. This would be very undesirable for patient outcomes and for the nursing profession as a whole as this will create more shortage of nurses, which is already an issue. Research has proven that effective leadership in an organization reduces nurse burnout. Effective nursing leadership creates a working environment that supports nurses, lessening burnout and increasing nurse retention (Mudallal, Othman & Al Hassan, 2017). So, my interventions to improve retention of nurses related to burnout fall under the leadership approach. Literature had proven that some interventions leaders can utilize to reduce their nurses’ burnout at work include: workforce motivation for nurses, improving job satisfaction, creating an organizational culture that is supportive of nurses and ensuring that their nurses care psychologically stable.

If my plan were to be implemented, I would evaluate my plan by making phone calls to my organization to determine if the retention rate of nurses has actually improved. It would be important for me to take this step in order to determine if the interventions were effective. I will be communicating with nurse leaders and managers to see if they actually utilized the evidence-based practice suggestions to reduce burnout. I will also be speaking to nurses to determine if their levels of burnout have decreased with leadership initiated interventions. It would also be appropriate to follow up with other members of the board of trustees to determine if effective follow-ups were made with their managers and leaders to see if they are actually implementing the EBP suggestions to reduce burnout in their nurses.

References

Ghavidel, F., Fallahi-Khoshknab, M., Molavynejad, S., & Zarea, K. (2019). The role of organizational factors in nurse burnout: Experiences from Iranian nurses working in psychiatric wards. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 8(12), 3893–3899. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_615_19

Mudallal, R. H., Othman, W. M., & Al Hassan, N. F. (2017). Nurses' burnout: The influence of leader empowering behaviors, work conditions, and demographic traits. Inquiry: A Journal of Medical Care Organization, Provision and Financing, 54, 46958017724944. https://doi.org/10.1177/0046958017724944