By: Audrey P Abreu

Audrey P Abreu — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 17:24:00 +0000

In a field that revolves around the optimal well-being of its clients, healthcare organizations are starting to pay more attention to their employees who provide this care. An increase in complications in health care is evidently pointing towards nurses who are struggling with their workload. “Working conditions of nurses (work overload, excessively long working days, role ambiguity and conflict, lack of autonomy…) that are increasingly difficult to cope with result in a progressive loss of idealism and energy, the reasons that led to the choice of this profession” (Manzano-Garcia and Ayala, 2017). As stated in the article, nurses are experiencing burnout because of stress in the work environment and a lack of self-care. It is important for the self-fulfillment of nurses to be able to have the ample time to provide effective patient care. Thus, these issues for over-worked nurses are reflecting in the type of patient care being given.

The article mentioned that the quality of patient care is being greatly affected by the level of satisfaction that nurses feel in their career. Reasonably so, it is emphasized that nurses should sufficiently care for themselves as they do their patients. Having energy, happiness, and strength in oneself is important for a caregiver in order to give better patient care; it is like a ripple effect. “Work no longer fills the individual, they feel inadequate both personally and professionally; this behavior affects their ability to carry out their work and the contact they have with people, drastically reducing their productivity and the quality of the services provided to patients” (Manzano-Garcia and Ayala, 2017). It is counterproductive to place nurses in an unsatisfying environment with harsh working conditions. Instead of making the job more efficient, this creates time constraints where nurses would not be able to have more one on one time with patients. In addition, the stress from a high workload makes nurses more susceptible to making medical errors that can put the patient at risk for harm.

Better quality patient care starts with the nurses. It is great that the article distinguished the kind of care that nurses need to function through CARE4ME. To improve the stability of the mental, emotional, and physical health, this strategy intends to help care for nurses and increase their well-being overall. “Nurses may decrease or prevent burnout by practicing self-care and encouraging treatment centers to support burnout intervention programs” (Curtis et. al., 2017). Taking some time off is necessary to be able to give self-care. In conjunction, health care organizations should set guidelines that allow nurses to take care of themselves and improve working conditions. This starts with figuring out how to measure nurse working conditions through a nurse’s overall perception of their own happiness as well as observing what in the environment affects how the role of the nurse is carried out (Bae, 2011).
Keeping a close eye on nurses is essential for surveying the relationship between a nurse’s job satisfaction and the patient care being given. This will help to determine what interventions need to take place to establish a health care environment that aids both the nurses and patients. Implementing interventions to ensure that nurses are satisfied and fulfilled in their work will in turn increase optimal patient care.

References

BAE, S. (2011). Assessing the relationships between nurse working conditions and patient outcomes: systematic literature review. Journal Of Nursing Management, 19(6), 700-713.

Curtis, K., Fry, M., Shaban, R. Z., & Considine, J. (2017). Translating research findings to clinical nursing practice. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 26(5/6), 862-872.

Manzano-García, G., & Ayala, J. (2017). Insufficiently studied factors related to burnout in nursing: Results from an e-Delphi study. Plos ONE, 12(4), 1-20.

Comments on: Nurses of Strong Mind, Body, and Spirit Deliver Better Care

By: Audrey P Abreu