Homework 8
Tashabrown7
shell-20211.docx
3
Literature
The research parameters included the use of the term “nurse fatigue” as the primary search word. The first search was conducted on a general browser that yielded several results. It was then performed on reputable journal databases, including MEDLINE, Elsevier, and PubMed. Some websites were also identified to provide relevant information about the topic, and they were included in the literature review. A search of the reference list of the identified articles was also performed to find additional eligible articles.
Nursing fatigue has adverse impacts, including taking a toll on patient care. Sharon Weinstein notes that the healthcare of nurses determines the quality of care patients receive (Weinstein, 2020). Therefore, it is essential for healthcare organizations to address nursing fatigue at appropriate times to avoid the adverse impacts of the issue.
Nurse fatigue is an impediment to the quality of care nurses offer. Various factors cause nursing fatigue, including the practice environment. Environmental factors leading to nurse fatigue include long work hours, distressing patient events, physical or mental factors causing fatigue, and low hours of sleep (Knupp et al., 2018). Good nurse manager ability plays a vital role in addressing the issues experienced by the healthcare professionals.
Nursing fatigue is a significant challenge to the wellbeing of care providers. According to Kolthoff & Hickman (2017), geriatric nurses have a higher chance of developing compassion fatigue and burnout because of their exposure to a lot of suffering and loss. The authors identified an average prevalence of burnout and compassion fatigue with unmatched compassion satisfaction. The lack of measures to address nurse fatigue causes other challenges like absenteeism or nurse turnover.
Nurse fatigue is dangerous to both patients and nurses. The impact of nursing fatigue is a reduced ability to perform one’s responsibilities (Ulrich, 2018). Patients who rely on primary care providers are at risk because of issues like medication errors or incompetence that could jeopardize the health of patients. Nurses also face a threat when they do not take necessary precautions to address the health issues they face.
The culture adopted in organizations determines the dedication allocated to address the needs of its professionals. The common causes of nurse fatigue include declined nurse satisfaction, negative patient outcomes, and heavy workloads. However, addressing nursing fatigue faces a challenge from the culture in the profession (Steege & Rainbow, 2017). The ‘supernurse’ culture indicates that nurses and their organizations play a crucial role in addressing the challenge through adopted cultures.
The physical health environment of nurses determines the nursing fatigue and wellbeing of the professionals. According to Wingler and Keys (2019), the physical environment of a nurse can determine whether their wellbeing improves or deteriorates. The organizational environment should always strive to ensure that nurses have the most conducive work environments to nurse fatigue and other health complications. It is also essential to the wellbeing of patients.
The working routines of nurses also determine their compassion fatigue and should be addressed to ensure their wellbeing. The responsibilities of a nurse are multidimensional and can cause fatigue in the professionals. Nurse leaders can address this through the identification of efficient work schedules that will mitigate nurse fatigue. According to Min et al. (2019), work schedules have proven to be the most effective interventions for healthcare managers to ensure the wellbeing of their nurses.
Addressing nursing fatigue is essential to the wellbeing of nurses and their patients. The American Nurse suggests a series of interventions to address nurse fatigue, including scheduling and self-management. The article emphasizes the significance of personal initiative in addressing nurse fatigue.
The early identification of nurse fatigue is essential in effectively addressing the issue. According to Kelton et al. (2014), it is essential that both nurses and their supervisors note the identifiers of nurse fatigue early to avoid its adverse consequences in later stages. The measure is preventive and effective for the healthcare providers.
References
American Nurse. (2020, July 14). American nurse: The Official Journal of the American Nurses Association (ANA). https://www.myamericannurse.com/fighting-effects-nurse-fatigue/
Kelton, D., Kingsley, E., Davis, C., & Miller, D. (2014). Running on empty? The facts about nursing fatigue. Lippincott NursingCenter | Professional Development for Nurses. https://www.nursingcenter.com/journalarticle?Article_ID=1693539&Journal_ID=417221&Issue_ID=1693405
Kolthoff, K. L., & Hickman, S. E. (2017). Compassion fatigue among nurses working with older adults. Geriatric Nursing (New York, N.Y.), 38(2), 106–109.
Knupp, A. M., Patterson, E. S., Ford, J. L., Zurmehly, J., & Patrick, T. (2018). Associations Among Nurse Fatigue, Individual Nurse Factors, and Aspects of the Nursing Practice Environment. Journal of Nursing Administration, 48(12), 642-648.
Min, A., Min, H., & Hong, H. C. (2019). Work schedule characteristics and fatigue among rotating shift nurses in hospital setting: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(5), 884-895.
Steege, L. M., & Rainbow, J. G. (2017). Fatigue in hospital nurses- ‘Supernurse’ culture is a barrier to addressing problems: A qualitative interview study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 67, 20–28.
Ulrich, B. (2018). Nurse Fatigue: Dangerous for Nurses and Patients. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 45(3), 239.
Weinstein, S. (2016, November 16). Nurse fatigue takes toll on patient care. Nursing Centered. https://nursingcentered.sigmanursing.org/features/top-stories/Vol41_1_nurse-fatigue-takes-toll-on-patient-care
Wingler, D., & Keys, Y. (2019). Understanding the impact of the physical health care environment on nurse fatigue. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(8), 1712-1721.
Nurse Fatigue
Thesis+introduction
Nurse fatigue is a daunting problem that has been widely regarded as a threat to both nurse and patient health. Nurse exhaustion is described as an emotional feeling, mental or genuinely feeling drained or exhausted due to nursing demands ("Fighting the Effects of Nurse Fatigue," 2017). Nurse exhaustion is common due to high-strength responsibilities, a lack of sleep, and long work hours (Steege & Rainbow, 2017). Institutions are abstracts, and their efficacy and success depend on the persons entrusted with the responsibility of seeing the provision of services in such institutions; the healthcare system is not an exception to this deposition. Nurses are often exposed to extreme sadness and misfortune, which has been linked to the development of burnout fatigue. Sympathy exhaustion refers to a lack of business-related satisfaction, but it may also refer to situations where the job brings more pain than happiness. The risk of empathy exhaustion varies from one nurse to the next, depending on their level of involvement and their role, with those dealing with more mature adults being at higher risk. Kolthoff & Hickman (2017) found that average levels of burnout, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction were recorded by forty two nurses working on a geriatric medicine unit in an exploratory, descriptive study on compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and burnout. Nurse fatigue affects the nurses' ability to deliver and reduces the quality of service issued to the patients, thus affecting the health outcome, and the new nurses who still have less experience are the most affected. There is a need for deliberative administrative and personal efforts to reduce nurse fatigue. These efforts by the nurses include having a sufficient sleep and on the side of the administration checking on the working hours of every nurse.
3
References
Fighting the effects of nurse fatigue. (2017, May 19). American Nurse. https://www.myamericannurse.com/fighting-effects-nurse-fatigue/
Kolthoff, K. L., & Hickman, S. E. (2017). Compassion fatigue among nurses working with older adults. Geriatric Nursing (New York, N.Y.), 38(2), 106–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2016.08.003
Steege, L. M., & Rainbow, J. G. (2017). Fatigue in hospital nurses - "Supernurse" culture is a barrier to addressing problems: A qualitative interview study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 67, 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.11.014
Discussion
Nurses are at the frontline in attending to patients and ensuring that they are healthy. Their nature of work means that long hours get invested in their delivery of care to the patient. As a result, they may become victims of fatigue. Nursing fatigue entails the absence of energy, muscle weakness, impaired critical thinking skills, and emotional exhaustion. The nurses who provide care to the older patients, commonly known as geriatric nurses, are most prone to experiencing nursing fatigue due to the nature of their nursing practice. Their practice subjects them to immense suffering and loss-making them victims of compassion fatigue and burnout (Nolte et al., 2017). The older patients are high-needs patients. A nurse who is fatigue finds it hard to provide the proper care to patients.
When a nurse is fatigued, it is hazardous to both the nurse and the patient. On the patient side, it can even lead to the death of the patient. For example, a fatigued nurse gets the interpretation wrong for a healthcare provider’s orders to have a diabetic patient continue home medications. In this case, the diabetic patient can miss their insulin. Looking at another example, a fatigued nurse is administering penicillin to a patient who is allergic to it to combat an infection. The result is the patient experiencing an allergic reaction which can escalate to an anaphylactic shock or even worse than that. These two practice examples are incidences that can be avoided by eliminating nursing fatigue. Nurses can also harm themselves when they fail to observe the necessary precautions when providing care to patients with a contagious disease.
To combat nursing fatigue, it is essential to understand the factors that influence it. They include organizational culture, the nursing working environment, and the nursing working routines. If the nursing working environment is composed of stressors, the nurses are bound to develop fatigue due to job dissatisfaction. An unsupportive working environment creates negative perceptions among the nursing staff, which translates to job dissatisfaction and finally resulting in nursing fatigue (Waddill-Goad, 2016). The mitigation of the environmental stressors will improve nursing staff satisfaction and hence eliminate nursing fatigue. If the nursing working routines include working long shifts, rotating shifts, night shifts, including mandatory and voluntary overtime, the nursing staff is subject to nurse fatigue. The management ought to ensure that the nurses have reasonable working routines to eliminate incidences of nursing fatigue. Having the right organizational culture, such as better communication channels between the nursing staff and the management, is also critical at eliminating nursing fatigue.
Reference
Waddill-Goad, S. (2016). Nurse burnout: overcoming stress in nursing. Sigma Theta Tau.
Annotated Bibliography
Suliman, M., Almansi, S., ALBashtawy, M., Aljezawi, M., & Mrayyan, M. (2020). Effect of nurse managers' leadership styles on predicted nurse turnover. Nursing Management, 19, 4.
The article focuses on the role of nurse leaders in reducing nurse turnover in healthcare organizations. The authors note that nurse managers have a crucial role in reducing nurse turnover and they should be at the core of the daily routines of nurses to ensure that they address all issues that may arise. The article is essential because of its focus on nurse managers who are essential in determining nurse turnover.
Jones-Berry, S. (2018). What does high turnover in nurse director posts really mean for the profession?: With Nursing Standard research showing the trend remains unchanged, experts consider the impact. Nursing Standard, 33, 8.
The article identifies that half of nursing directors in the United Kingdom have been in their position for less than three years, which indicates the high turnover rate in the nursing profession. The identification of the challenge works towards finding proper solutions to the challenge as the role of healthcare in society constantly increases. The article is essential in identifying a serious challenge in healthcare and addressing it through relevant recommendations.
Commins, J. (2011). Five ways to reduce first-year nurse turnover. Trade Journals, 7-9.
The author notes that nurse turnover among first years is significantly high and requires immediate attention from relevant stakeholders. The article presents some resolutions that can help to address the challenge of high turnover among first year nurses. The article is essential in identifying resolutions for the current challenges leading to high turnover among nurses.
Thomas, K. S., Mor, V., Tyler, D. A., & Hyer, K. (2013). The relationships among licensed nurse turnover, retention, and rehospitalization of nursing home residents. The Gerontologist, 53, 2, 211-21.
The article identifies the provision of complex care as one of the factors leading to high nurse turnover in healthcare facilities. The authors create a link between staffing, wellbeing of care providers, and patient outcomes. The article is essential in analyzing the impact of nurse turnover on healthcare and the reasons for resolving the challenges.
Shaffer, F. A. (2020, August 6). American nurse: The official Journal of the American Nurses Association (ANA). American Nurse. https://www.myamericannurse.com/nurse-turnover-understand-it-reduce-it/
The website discusses nurse turnover as vital healthcare challenge in America. The author provides a framework for identifying nurse turnover issues and resolving the challenges to ensure the healthcare sector does not get into a crisis. The website provides a vital insight into the state of nurse staffing in America and suggests ways of resolving the matter as the challenges presented in healthcare continue to emerge.
The Sentinel Watch. (2020, August 5). Nursing turnover and retention strategies. https://www.americansentinel.edu/blog/2018/01/23/nursing-turnover-and-retention-strategies/
The post performs a step-by-step analysis of nursing turnover, beginning from its causes and focusing on the need for increased nurse-retention in the sector. The information is vital in addressing the issue of nurse turnover, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic that has shown the gaps in the healthcare sector. The post will be essential in assessing the issue of turnover among nurses including the crucial issue of nurse retention. Its use
will help to inform the identification of possible solutions and inform future research on applicable interventions.
References
Commins, J. (2011). Five ways to reduce first-year nurse turnover. Trade Journals, 7-9.
Jones-Berry, S. (2018). What does high turnover in nurse director posts really mean for the profession?: With Nursing Standard research showing the trend remains unchanged, experts consider the impact. Nursing Standard, 33, 8.
Shaffer, F. A. (2020, August 6). American nurse: The official Journal of the American Nurses Association (ANA). American Nurse. https://www.myamericannurse.com/nurse-turnover-understand-it-reduce-it/
Suliman, M., Almansi, S., ALBashtawy, M., Aljezawi, M., & Mrayyan, M. (2020). Effect of nurse managers' leadership styles on predicted nurse turnover. Nursing Management, 19, 4.
The Sentinel Watch. (2020, August 5). Nursing turnover and retention strategies. https://www.americansentinel.edu/blog/2018/01/23/nursing-turnover-and-retention-strategies/
Thomas, K. S., Mor, V., Tyler, D. A., & Hyer, K. (2013). The relationships among licensed nurse turnover, retention, and rehospitalization of nursing home residents. The Gerontologist, 53, 2, 211-21.
