NURS 6053: Interprofessional Organization and System Leadership

Healthcare Stressors Overview:

In healthcare, when workers have too much to do, it can lead to burnout, which is bad for organizations. Burnout makes workers feel less motivated, more stressed, and sometimes depressed. This can make them less effective and make the quality of care worse. Having too much work can also make workers tired, unfocused, and prone to making mistakes, which can upset patients. According to White et al. (2020), burnout from too much work can make workers less productive, make them miss work more often, and make more of them leave their jobs. This paper will talk about how burnout affects nurses and ways to make things better.

Supporting Evidence:

Data from organizations shows that burnout from too much work really hurts healthcare. For instance, a study in the International Journal of Health Services said that mistakes caused by burnout cost about $17.1 billion every year in the US alone. Another study in the American Journal of Health Promotion found that burnout makes workers 11% less productive and makes them miss work 10% more. Also, a study in the American Journal of Nursing found that burnout makes 25% more workers quit.

Summaries of Research:

Christianson et al. (2022) looked at how COVID-19 affects nurses wanting to quit. They found that nurses who felt burned out and tired were more likely to want to quit their jobs, no matter their race, gender, or experience. This shows that we need to help tired nurses so they don’t leave during the pandemic.

Olaleye et al. (2022) studied burnout in critical care nurses. They found that lots of things, like too much work and bad conditions, can cause burnout. They say we need to help nurses by giving them more resources, better communication, and support. We also need more research to understand how to help them better.

How We’re Fixing the Problems:

Healthcare groups are trying different things to help with too much work and burnout. One way is by making sure there are enough nurses for each patient, which is called safe staffing. This helps nurses have less work and give better care. Also, they’re trying to keep nurses by making work better, paying more, and letting them pick their schedules. This makes nurses feel like their work matters and they’re appreciated. Studies show that when workers feel good about their jobs, they do better work (Jacobs et al., 2018).

Some places are using technology to make things easier for nurses, like electronic records. This saves time and makes work less stressful. Finally, organizations are giving nurses more training to keep them updated on new things in healthcare. By doing these things, healthcare groups are making work better for nurses and giving patients better care.

Summary of Strategies:

To help with nurse burnout, managers are communicating more and supporting their staff better. They’re also offering programs to help with stress and self-care. Making the workplace supportive and offering flexible schedules can also help. Balancing work and giving nurses help with their tasks are other ways to reduce burnout. Providing resources like counseling and support from peers can also make a difference. Lastly, it’s important to make sure nurses feel safe and well.

Nurse burnout analysis of a pertinent healthcare issue

Effect on the Organization

The ways used to deal with the stress that makes nurses feel burned out, mentioned in the academic articles, could affect a company in a good way by making employees happier with their jobs, lowering stress and burnout, and making the care for patients better (Jun et al., 2021). These methods might also help raise the productivity and creativity of nurses, decrease the number of times they’re absent from work, and lift the spirits of the whole organization. But, if these approaches aren’t put into practice properly or are used without thinking about the specific needs and problems of the organization, they could have a negative effect. For example, if a company doesn’t have the means to offer flexible work hours, job sharing, or changing shifts, these might not work to tackle nurse burnout. Also, if an organization lacks the resources for mentoring, coaching, and education, these strategies may not be effective either.

Creating Organizational Rules and Methods

Nurses are really important in giving healthcare services, but they’re finding themselves with more work than they can handle well, which affects how well they can take care of patients. The current rules and laws aren’t enough to protect nurses from feeling too stressed, tired, and burnt out from their workloads. There’s a pressing need to change policies so that nurses get the support they need and can give the best care they can. This part of the paper wants to look at how much work nurses have, how it affects them, and to find out what changes in policy can help lower stress for nurses and make patient care better.

Different Needs

There are two needs that are in conflict when it comes to the problem of too much work and nurse burnout in healthcare: taking care of patients and making sure nurses are doing okay. Healthcare organizations have to provide good care for patients while also making sure nurses are doing well. This can be a problem because companies have to balance giving good care with stopping nurses from feeling too overwhelmed (Milliken, 2018). For example, companies might need to hire more nurses to give good care, but this could mean the nurses have even more work and get burnt out. To find a balance, healthcare organizations need to give resources and support to their nurses while making sure they can still give good care to patients.

Relevant Rules in Organization

The rule or practice in our company that might affect the problem of too much work and nurse burnout in healthcare is our rule about how many nurses should be taking care of each patient. Our company has made a rule about this to make sure patients get good care and to stop nurses from getting burnt out (Olaleye et al., 2022). The rule says that there always has to be the right number of nurses to take care of the number of patients in the building. This rule helps make sure nurses don’t have too much work and can give good care to patients. Also, the rule helps stop nurse burnout by giving nurses what they need to do well.

Review of Rule

The rule about how many patients each nurse should take care of has a few things to think about ethically. First, the rule could make patients safer by making sure nurses can give good care to everyone. This is important because it makes sure patients get the best care and that their rights are respected. Second, the rule could stop nurses from getting burnt out, which is important because it means nurses aren’t working too much and can take care of themselves (Kelly & Porr, 2018). The good things about the rule are that it makes sure patients get good care and that nurses aren’t working too much (Van der Heijden et al., 2019). But, there are also challenges. The rule might only work in some healthcare places because they don’t have enough money or other things they need. It might only stop nurse burnout if the company gives more help to its nurses. Also, the rule might change because of new laws or policies, which could make it not work as well.

Suggested Rule

One change to the rules that could help balance the needs of resources, workers, and patients is to start a program for nurse wellness (Belton, 2018). This program could give nurses things like counseling and support from other nurses to help them handle their work and stress (Christianson et al., 2022). Also, the program could give nurses chances to learn new things, like going to webinars and seminars, to help them know about the newest healthcare things (Raso, 2018). And, the program could give nurses rewards, like more days off, to thank them for their hard work. Finally, the program could let nurses work at different times and switch shifts to help them handle their work. By starting this program, a company could balance the needs of resources, workers, and patients, and also fix any problems with how things are now.

Ending

Nurse burnout is a big problem that affects nurses and the care patients get. Starting a program for nurse wellness could balance the needs of resources, workers, and patients. This program would give nurses things like support, chances to learn new things, rewards, and chances to change their work times. With this program, healthcare companies would make sure nurses are okay and that patients get good care. This would help companies give better care while still following the rules about what’s right.

References

Belton, S. (2018). Caring for the caregivers: Making the case for mindfulness-based wellness programming to support nurses and prevent staff turnover. Nursing economics, 36(4), 191-195. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/caring-caregivers-making-case-mindfulness-based/docview/2096472658/se-2

Christianson, J., Johnson, N., Nelson, A., & Singh, M. (2022). Work-Related Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Nurse Intention to Leave the Profession During COVID-19. Nurse Leader. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2022.06.007

Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging employees in well-being: Moving from the triple aim to the quadruple aim. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 42(3), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000303

Jun, J., Ojemeni, M. M., Kalamani, R., Tong, J., & Crecelius, M. L. (2021). Relationship between nurse burnout, patient and organizational outcomes: Systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 119, 103933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103933

Kelly, P., & Porr, C. (2018). Ethical nursing care versus cost containment: Considerations to enhance RN practice. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man06

Milliken, A. (2018). Ethical awareness: what it is and why it matters. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol23No01Man01

Olaleye, T. T., Christianson, T. M., & Hoot, T. J. (2022). Nurse burnout and resiliency in critical care nurses: a scoping review. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 17, 100461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2022.100461

Raso, R. (2018). The state of nurse leader wellness: Results of the nursing management wellness survey. Nursing Management, 49(2), 24-31 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000529923.20634.fa

Van der Heijden, B., Brown Mahoney, C., & Xu, Y. (2019). Impact of job demands and resources on nurses’ burnout and occupational turnover intention towards an age-moderated mediation model for the nursing profession. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(11), 2011. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16112011

White, E. M., Aiken, L. H., Sloane, D. M., & McHugh, M. D. (2020). Nursing home work environment, care quality, registered nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction. Geriatric Nursing, 41(2), 158-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2019.08.007

DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES

Competing needs arise within any organization as employees seek to meet their targets and leaders seek to meet company goals. As a leader, successful management of these goals requires establishing priorities and allocating resources accordingly.

Within a healthcare setting, the needs of the workforce, resources, and patients are often in conflict. Mandatory overtime, implementation of staffing ratios, use of unlicensed assisting personnel, and employer reductions of education benefits are examples of practices that might lead to conflicting needs in practice DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES NURS-6053 Assignment.

Leaders can contribute to both the problem and the solution through policies, action, and inaction. In this Assignment, you will further develop the white paper you began work on in Module 1 by addressing competing needs within your organization.

To Prepare:

• Review the national healthcare issue/stressor you examined in your Assignment for Module 1, and review the analysis of the healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
• Identify and review two evidence-based scholarly resources that focus on proposed policies/practices to apply to your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post regarding competing needs.

The Assignment (1-2 pages):

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Add a section to the 2-3 page paper you submitted in Module 1. The new section should address the following in 1-2 pages:

• Identify and describe at least two competing needs impacting your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Describe a relevant policy or practice in your organization that may influence your selected healthcare issue/stressor.
• Critique the policy for ethical considerations, and explain the policy’s strengths and challenges in promoting ethics.
• Recommend one or more policy or practice changes designed to balance the competing needs of resources, workers, and patients, while addressing any ethical shortcomings of the existing policies. Be specific and provide examples.
• Cite evidence that informs the healthcare issue/stressor and/or the policies, and provide two scholarly resources in support of your policy or practice recommendations.
• Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback. DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES NURS-6053 Assignment