Importance of Finding Work/Study/Life Balance and how Meditation can help
Finding work/study/life balance among nurses is a vital aspect that sees the nurses work efficiently to provide care to the patients in various care settings. At the same time, the three elements are of significance in that they are critical in the operation and development of the individual nurses. In the case of imbalance, the organization, patient and the nurse are all affected. It is therefore critical for all the stakeholders involved to come in enhancing various practice changes such as mediation which improves the balance (Allen & Paddock, 2015). This article critically analyzes the significance of Work/Study/Life balance and imbalance to the care units, patients, and patients together with the interventions that can be used as depicted by various studies.
Significance and background of Work/Study/Life Imbalance
This problem entails the unmatched prioritization of the time and activities that revolve around family, job and class work. All individuals undertaking multiple activities at the same time are usually moved to this corner of a dilemma to balance the issues (Hamlin et al., 2016). The balance, on the other hand, encompasses bringing work, whether undertaken on the workplace or back home, leisure time and study period into balance to make an individual live his or her life to the fullest. It is worth noting that the balance does not translate to spending a third of one ’s life at work, a third of it studying and a third of it playing but rather entailing balancing the three to create harmony in an individual’s emotional, physical and spiritual health.
The imbalance in work, family and class time is significant because it does not only affect the individual experiencing the imbalance but also the healthcare organization as well as the patient who is the care user in this case. The imbalance is also critical as it a contributing factor to the services that are offered in various care setting by the individual nurses. At the same time, the problem determines the efficiency of the services offered by the affected individual thus making it an aspect that requires substantial concentration and probable influence towards a stable balance.
The current practices are geared towards handling the imbalance entail self-awareness as well as meditation amongst the affected individuals. The self-awareness entails a periodic evaluation of individual nurses that allows them to determine the goals, wants, likes, needs, and desires that they have to meet. The assessment and reevaluation allow for the person to readjust the demands at work, home and at school as appropriate. This move is based on the fact that work, home, and class life are all essential and necessary and ought to be fulfilling and satisfying.
Another practice employed concerning the work, life and study imbalance is the application of priority setting as well as foresighted planning (Hamlin et al., 2016). These entail the nurse communicating to the family members concerning plans to engage in class activities as well as proceeding with there working. The communication ought also to be passed to the student mentors and the in charges of the care units where the nurse works. This gives an opportunity for support from all the involved stakeholders. At the same time, the setting of priority allows for the nurse to allocate time for various activities and even compromise where necessary.
Meditation, on the other hand, allows for sleep and relaxation of the mind. Mindfulness meditation can be used to manage the stress from work, family and class activities to improve the quality of the sleep that might have been deprived by the imbalance (Allen & Paddock, 2015). The meditation is also vital in maintaining a focus of the activities that are before an individual thus rejuvenating the individual to get ready for the task.
The imbalance amongst the three elements has greats impact on the healthcare organizations, the individual and the patient receiving the nursing services from the person affected. The individual may experience increased stress that compromises the coping mechanisms (Gauvreau et al., 2016). The stress may originate from various factors such as staff patterns and shit work since in nursing, the work demand s and the needs of patients usually takes precedence. The shift works more so the rotating shift tend to disrupt the individual’s circadian rhythm which in the long haul leads to illnesses, accidents and sleeping disturbances. Besides one can experience psychological issues in connection with boredom and isolation from the family members and friends who are not on a similar schedule.
The individual may also be stressed depending on the work nature whereby there exists inadequate staff to provide care patients. In the process of striving to provide services with the available working force, the work may be too much to increase stress and even stretch into the time allocated for other activities such as studies and family time.
In the event of a disconnection from work or home by the nurse and having less energy for either of the activities, the nurse can also experience burnout which includes both physical and mental exhaustion. In the long run, the nurse gets dissatisfaction at the workplace, and this impacts both the family and the class activities.
When the nurse gets imbalanced work, family and class time, the general output in all the three areas are impaired (Gauvreau et al., 2016). This aspect translates to a provision of relatively low quality of nursing care with increased instances of medical errors. The patient s safety will, therefore, will not be guaranteed and this may impair the patient’s status further. The patient satisfaction with the services provided by such nurse will also be lowered due to the low-quality care provided. As a result, the patient may prefer not to seek medical assistance from the facility or change its view and behavior towards seeking nursing services. At the same time, the patient may change their belief on the role of the nurse in assisting individuals to achieve optimal health.
The imbalance can also impact the organization which is usually dependent on the services provided by its workforce. When the nurse is stressed or experiences burnout, the work output is not only low but also of low quality (Hamlin et al., 2016). The organization will, therefore, get an impaired image that is related to the poor services offered. The imbalance can also translate to the unfavorable working environment, and this can lead to high nurse turnovers. This turnover is not only costly to the organization but also predisposes the other workers to stress, and burnout from the shortage of staff created.
PICO Table
| P (patient/problem) | Work/Study/Life imbalance among nurses |
| I (intervention/indicator) | Meditation, Self awareness and priority setting |
| C (comparison) | No meditation |
| O (Outcome) | Finding of work/study/life balance to the nursing staffs. |
PICO question
Concerning Work/study/ life imbalance among nurses, do meditation amongst them compared to those who do not undergo meditation influence the situation to achieve the balance in the determined elements?
Keywords
In the determination of the articles used for the literature review, the keywords used in the search included:
- Importance of study, work and life balance among nurses.
- The study, work and life imbalance in nursing.
- Impact of job on family and class activities among nurses.
- Nurses perception of job, family and life relationship.
- Meditation impacting work, study, and life imbalance.
- Meditation used to enhance work, life and study balance
Number and Types of Articles
The number of articles that came up amounted to 54. On analysis, relevance was determined to enable exclusion and exclusion of the articles. I reviewed 11 to come up with the article. These include 2 that were meant to educate on overcoming work/life/study imbalance, 4 quantitative studies, and 5 qualitative studies.
Research and Non-Research Evidence
The first research study dwelt on the resilience and the work and life balance among the first line nurse managers. According to Kim & Windsor (2015), there was a need to explore the manner unto which the nurse managers formed the meaning of resilience and determine the relationship it had towards work-life balance. There study found that the nurse managers perceived that both resilience and work-life balance were built and natured by both reflective and dynamic processes. The key features determined entailed flexibility, separating life and work, positive thinking as well as assuming responsibility. It is through this perception that the probability to change from task-centered to person-centered thinking, organization to life, rigidity to flexibility and negative to positive experiences would be realized.
The second research study ventured in determining the level of work and life imbalance among nurses and its impact on the job satisfaction and the overall quality of life. The study found that majority of the nurses determined that a larger proportion of their time was rendered to the work-life than the private life thus had a work-life imbalance (Makabe et al., 2015). This realization led the conclusion of lower job satisfaction and quality of life to be resulting from the imbalance and could lead to high nurse turnover. Besides, progress from both the individual nurse as well as the overall management was vital.
The first non-research article dwelt on the various ways of balancing study, work and personal life which usually form the parts of student life. Rana (2016) reiterates that in most cases, study and work occupy the better part of individual’s time leaving them with a small amount of time for their personal life. In order to work towards balancing the situation, various aspects need to be taken into account. These entail not procrastinating to undertake the class work, considering a day off from work to rest, avoiding multitasking especially bringing other duties into the workplace or at home as well as making a schedule and sticking to it for guidance in time management.
The second non-research article interrogated the reason for the millennials turning to meditation to gain the work-life balance. Schroeder (2017) determined that at least 42% of millennial meditated at least ones in a year. Millennial were determined by the American Psychological Association to be the most stressed generation relating to the pressures that originate from the workplace. According to the author, meditation works through various ways to resolve the stress before it negatively impacts individuals’ lives. The meditation was determined to reduce the levels of stress, enhance healthy eating, assist in the achievement of personal goals and enhance one’s productivity thus a remedy to the imbalance from work, study and personal life interfaces. Besides, the meditation can influence one to be more compassionate as well as happier thus bridging the gap that is created between the three elements which eventually leads to balancing them.
Evidence Matrix
| Authors | Journal Name/ WGU Library | Year of Publication | Research Design | Sample Size | Outcome Variables Measured | Level (I–III) | Quality (A, B, C) | Results/Author’s Suggested Conclusions |
| Kim, M., & Windsor, C. | Asian nursing research | 2015 | Grounded theory research was applied which is a flexible research design. | 20 first-line nurse managers. | Perception of the nurse managers on resilience and its impact on the work-life balance. | III | C | The study determined that the nurse managers perceived work-life imbalance and resilience to be determined by both reflective and dynamic process. The authors therefore concluded that there was need to recognize the work and life balance in enabling resilience and promoting nurses retention. |
| Makabe, S., Takagai, J., Asanuma, Y., Ohtomo, K., & Kimura, Y | Industrial health | 2015 | Cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed. | 1202 nurses | Desired work-life balance and private and work-related perspectives. | III | A | Majority of nurses realized that they had a greater part of work life in comparison to the private life along with work-life imbalance. The authors concluded that the lives of nurses were likely in danger in the instances where the working proportion exceeded the private life proportion. |
| Ng, L. P., Chen, I. C., Ng, H. F., Lin, B. Y., & Kuar, L. S | Journal of nursing
management, |
2017 | Correlation study design. | 2040 nurses | Job demands, job controls as well as the work-life balance | III |
A |
The study determined job demands and job control to have critical impact on the work and life balance. Job demand increased the state of work-life balance. The job control however indicated a positive impact on the work-life balance. However, it increased the instances where work interfered with personal life with personal life also impacting work. |
| Hevezi, J. A | Journal of Holistic Nursing | 2016 | Qualitative study conducted as a non-randomized, pre-post intervention study. | 15 nurses | The study was to determine the sense of calmness, relaxation and self-compassion among the participant. | III | C | There was statistical significant increase in self compassion and reduction in burnout after mediation. The author realized that practice of breathing and meditation exercises enhanced nurse outcomes. Further research was recommended to determine the effect of maintained practice of meditation. |
| Michel, A., Bosch, C., & Rexroth, M. | Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology | 2014 | Experimental study design with both control and treatment groups. | 246 participants | The study aimed to determine the strain-based work family conflict, psychological detachment and satisfaction with work-life balance. | 1 | The authors determined the fact that mindfulness was essential in enabling employees balance between work and private life. |
Practice Change
In the event of work, life and study imbalance, meditation is vital as depicted by studies by both Hevezi (2016) and Michel, Bosch & Rexroth, (2014). Through brief mindfulness interventions, the nurses undergoing the imbalance can develop a focus that improves their management of the time allocated for various activities. The process of meditation will then entail nurses spending some time to focus their minds on multiple thoughts or activity, one at a time. This move will aim at making them develop focuses on the activities that they have to undertake pertaining personal life, at the workplace and in their studies. A schedule will then be developed to incorporate all the identified activities. In so doing, the meditation would have assisted in focusing and prioritizing various issues that are of concern. It will allow the individual nurses be flexible and work towards the balancing of work, personal life, and class work.
Implementation of the practice change
According to Michel, Bosch & Rexroth, (2014), the organization ought to roll out programs that entail voluntary health and work-life balance. These programs then can have the meditation sessions incorporated into them to facilitate their efficiency. In achieving this strategy, I will lobby for the organizational support so that they can come to the center stage of the planned change. This move will entail drafting a proposal and presenting it to the leadership in the organization stating the impact of the work/study/life imbalance to the organization, patient and individual nurses and how their support will avert the situation. Such undertakings will apparently win their support for the change.
Another stakeholder of significance, in this case, would be the individual nurses. In reaching them, I will conduct a seminar that would include all the nurse and seek their views concerning the project. It is through such participation that they are even likely to support it and device better ways that fit them during the implementation phase. Another group of stakeholders that is key to making the process continuous are the nurse educators (Virgolesi et al., 2014). They come in at the point of curriculum adjustment which will see the program continues in future. Their involvement will come in at the point of curriculum development whereby through a presentation of research findings pertaining meditation, the agenda can be pushed forward.
In the implementation of meditation in nursing practice, the process may be hindered by resistance from fellow nurses who may view the idea to be an external issue thus considers it not to be their own. This barrier can, however, be overcome by ensuring the nurses are involved in all the steps of developing the change so that they can own the idea and support it. Another barrier may be financial constraints that may come with the program. The problem may originate with the need to have a good number of nurses to enable the nursing care to be prided continuously even the time when other staff members are undergoing the meditation process. By seeking support from the nursing leadership, they can assist in overcoming the barrier by allocating more funds to the department so that more nurses can be hired to meet the patient’s needs at all times.
In determining the impact of the practice change, the nurse ought to report better job satisfaction, better work, personal life and class balance as well as relief from stress and burnout (Allen, & Paddock, 2015). Since the imbalance increases inefficiency among nurses, a positive impact can be determined by the change in the number of errors noted from nurses. The patients may also report satisfaction from the services offered by nurses who are practicing meditation.
Conclusion
Finding work/life/study balance is essential among nurses mainly because the three elements are dependent and essential in their lives. The balance allows for efficient work output in the care unit, class, and back at home. In the case of imbalance, the nurse experiences stress, burnout and job dissatisfaction and this impacts the patient who receives poor services as well as the organization whose reputation is dependent on the services the nurse offers. It is therefore critical that organization can cheep in to venture into practice changes such meditation which is crucial is balancing the three elements.
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