Nurses: Stressed and Burned-Out

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the general effects of nursing stress and burnout. A nurse who is feeling stressed and/or burned-out is a patient safety issue. Nurses that are fatigued are prone to making more medication errors and inadvertently putting their patients at risk. In South Carolina (SC) there is no set nurse to patient ratio. In most organizations in SC, the medical-surgical nurse-to-patient ratio is 1:6-7. In extenuating circumstances, that ratio can be as high as 1:8. Because of these nurse-to-patient ratios, more nurses are showing signs of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. This paper will produce the effects of nursing stress and burnout and recommending a solution.

Background and Scope of Problem

There are a multitude of reasons why nurses become stressed and burned-out. According to Ahmed et al. nurse stress and burnout are directly affected by: work schedules, heavy workloads, peers’ behaviour, environmental factors, patient support, organizational characteristics, nature of diseases and family pressure directly influence the job performance. Therefore, the nurses, as an employees and a family members, are pressurized to justify both roles simultaneously. These mutually incompatible roles along with inconsistent and behavioural demands contribute immensely to the job burnout rate. (2019, p. 935)

Being a nurse requires one to remain focused, detail-oriented and maintain a high level of awareness. However, when problems such as stress and burnout occur nurses begin to experience a decrease in job satisfaction and patience care and safety (Li et al., 2020). A nurse under immense stress or burnout could not be considered suitable to care for patients as they could present a risk to patient’s safety and well-being................... Continue