What causes nursing burnout? And how can it be prevented?
Nursing burnout is as a result of many work-related issues. Nurses are people who deal with death daily, and they have to endure emotional strains as they deal with the loss of their patients and console grieving families. To an extent, this emotional strain may be overwhelming. In addition to emotional stress, they have to endure long shifts that last up to 12 hours or more (Ndawula, 2016). Burnouts are a threat to the health of patients and the health of nurses. The objective of this study is to explore how burnouts can be managed.
Purpose and Theoretical Framework.
The primary purpose of this study is to shed light and draw attention to the problem of burnout in the nursing profession. The possible causes of burnouts and strategies put in place to cope with burnouts. Two questions guided the whole study:
- What causes nursing burnout?
- How can nursing burnout be prevented?
The Job Demand-Resources Model and Maslach theory on burnouts are the two theoretical frameworks that help explore this study. These theories have been chooses because they are highly related to the topic of research, which is burnouts. The first theory, which is Job- resource model, explains how job demand and resources determine occupational stress and burnouts. This theory also supports all people from various occupations. The approach was formulated to support the emotional and physical wellbeing of all employees so that they can bring forth better results in the work they undertake. As mentioned earlier, this theory has two major parts. Under job demand, there are psychological, physical and social organization characteristics of the Job which vary from the pressure of the Job and workload, the uncertainties of the Job and conflicts that may occur at work. Under Job resources, there are social structures to assist the workers in working effectively. These resources include but are not limited to; safe and conducive working environments, good leadership, and working tools (Montgomery, Spânu, Băban, & Panagopoulou, 2015). In this model, when the demand for jobs high and the job resources are minimal workers experience burnouts and stress and vice versa.
Maslach theory, which is the second theory that is appropriate for this study because it focuses on the occurrence of burnouts of individuals engaging in any kind of work. The initial research for this theory involved the formation of an existing theory that would focus on burnouts. The primary interest of that research was to study emotions that led to occupational burnouts (Ndawula, 2016). According to this theory, any form of burnouts in any occupation is caused by a mismatch between the individual doing the job and the job demand. According to this theory, burnouts are in three dimensions, namely; emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. Emotional exhaustion is more noticeable in all three dimensions. This dimension has been characterized by emotional stress whose symptoms are, frustrations, and moodiness. In the second dimension, cynicism, people detach themselves from the Job. Some negative feelings accompany this detachment. It is in this dimension that job dissatisfaction occurs. In the last dimension, which is more complicated than the other dimensions the worker experiences an unwanted feeling of unworthiness, and the worker experiences a sense of reduced personal achievements (Ndawula, 2016). This theory sheds light on the consequences of burnout.
Methodology
(Li, Guan, et al, 2014) conducted a cross-sectional study. The cross-sectional survey was carried out in Shenyang, China, in a month. The survey was carried out between May and July 2013. A total of 1559 nurses were asked to fill a questionnaire. The respondents of this survey were from five hospitals, three of the hospitals were university-affiliated hospitals, and the other hospitals were a provincial one and a municipal tertiary hospital. For nurses to be recruited for the survey, they were required to have an RN license that was given by the Ministry of Health and be working as a registered nurse during the time of the survey. The survey was not going to recruit head nurses and any nurse who was serving as an administrator. The survey was done anonymously for four weeks. In the end, 1995 clinical nurses were recruited. A total of 1662 questionnaires were returned, marking a return rate of 83.3% return rate. One hundred three questionnaires had missing data, therefore they were discarded after they were discarded 1559 questionnaire were analyzed. Before participating, all the participants were required to sign a consent form (Li, Guan, Chang, & Zhang, 2014).
Major findings and conclusion
From the study, it was determined that nurses with the characteristic of higher self evaluation experienced minimal emotional exhaustion since none of them showed any signs of emotional exhaustion such as moodiness or frustration. These nurses showed minimal signs of cynicism. It was also found out that burnouts occurred as a result of continuous work pressure that was not handled well. This pressure is defined in three dimensions that are in the maslach theory. Nurses between the age of 30-40 showed the highest level of emotional exhaustion, and the highest levels of cynicism (Li, Guan, Chang, & Zhang, 2014). Nurses who had stayed in the profession for about 15 years showed the highest score of burnouts in all three dimensions.
The data from the study suggests implementation of approaches which promote active coping styles that nurses can adopt is good way of helping to reduce burnouts among these professionals. When burnouts are reduced, nursing efficacy is reduced. According to the research-active copping can be a positive resource that can be used to fight burnouts. The research concluded to reduce burnouts, it is advisable that hospitals conduct nurse training on how to solve problems. This will be done to help nurses develop and be able to apply coping skills that will help them cope with the work stress they face. This training will help improve the health of nurses and they're well being, which in return will help reduce burnouts and increase the quality of healthcare offered by nurses (Li, Guan, Chang, & Zhang, 2014). Is seeking their methods of preventing burnouts that were not included in the study were seeking early intervention once a nurse starts manifesting signs of burnouts.
Annotated bibliography
An evaluative annotation is a critical analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, and biases of the source, and why one thinks its useful.
- Li, X., Guan, L., Chang, H., & Zhang, B. (2014). Core self-evaluation and burnout among nurses: the mediating role of coping styles. PloS one, 9(12), e115799.
This journal examines how nurses experience burnouts and the role of coping strategies in reducing burnouts in nurses. This article also explores the various dimensions of burnouts as presented by the maslach theory. The articles explain how these multiple dimensions affect nurses of different age and different positions. Research on burnout conducted in the past has failed to be specific in the sense that it explores burnouts without picking one particular profession. A key strength of this research is that it focused on the burnouts experienced by one profession instead of generalizing all the professions. Another key strength of this article is that the proposed theoretical framework has been used throughout the whole study. This article was also particular about the participants of the research and the position of the nurse involved. Another key strength of this article is the fact that when discussing the results of the study it was specific on the age group that experienced the various dimensions of maslach theory. The key weakness of this article is that it failed to state further the examples of coping strategies that should be employed to help prevent burnouts. This article is useful in that it has shown how burnout affects nurses and what can be done to reduce these burnouts. Nurses are a vital part of society. They are responsible for helping take care of others, which will be difficult if they are continuously affected by burnouts.
- Ndawula, M. (2016). Burnout among Staff Nurses: Examining the causes, coping strategies, and prevention.
This article helped provide insight into the maslach burnout theory and explaining the fundamental reason why the theory was developed. One of the strengths of this article is that it explains in detail all the three dimensions of the Maslach burnout theory and the signs of burnout at all these three dimensions. Another key strength is that it discusses the causes of burnout in nurses and the possible actions that can be taken to reduce burnout. This made the article straightforward when relating with the theoretical framework of the paper. The only weakness of this article is that only a small part of it discusses this theory. This article was useful since it suggested what can be done to reduce burnout in all the three dimensions of the theory.
- Montgomery, A., Spânu, F., Băban, A., & Panagopoulou, E. (2015). Job demands, burnout, and engagement among nurses: A multi-level analysis of ORCAB data investigating the moderating effect of teamwork. Burnout Research, 2(2-3), 71-79.
This article proved to be useful since it provided another theoretical framework, Job- Resource that can be used to explore the possible causes and the possible solutions of nursing burnouts. The key strength of this article is that it explores this theory and how it relates to the burnout that nurses experience. This article was important since it shed light on another theoretical framework that is very suitable when exploring the same kind of research. The only weakness of this article is that it failed to provide solutions that lie within the theoretical framework that can be used to solve the problem of burnouts.
The evaluation
This document contains information on the causes of burnouts and the various signs of burnout syndrome. This document contains the results of a study that was conducted on nurses in China with the aim of identifying the causes of nursing burnout and how these burnouts can be prevented. The study concluded that burnouts can be prevented.
References
Li, X., Guan, L., Chang, H., & Zhang, B. (2014). Core self-evaluation and burnout among nurses: the mediating role of coping styles. PloS one, 9(12), e115799.
Montgomery, A., Spânu, F., Băban, A., & Panagopoulou, E. (2015). Job demands, burnout, and engagement among nurses: A multi-level analysis of ORCAB data investigating the moderating effect of teamwork. Burnout Research, 2(2-3), 71-79.
Ndawula, M. (2016). BURNOUT AMONG STAFF NURSES: Examining the causes, coping strategies, and prevention
