In many professions, there are challenges faced by professionals in the execution of their daily duties. These challenges differ depending on the profession and area of specialization of a person. Even though passion and commitment may be seen as some of the reasons to mitigate the effects of these challenges, it becomes apparent that some issues are cross-cutting in all professions. In the nursing field, for instance, professionals are faced with the challenges of fatigue and burnout. It is customary nature in the nursing profession for nurses to spend long hours caring for patients ( Miller, 2016) . The long shifts are necessitated by the fact that there is a need for closer supervision of patients. This discussion entails the association of nursing practice with fatigue and burnout.
This essay’s topic aims at finding the relationship between nursing practice and fatigue and burnout due to the fact that most nurses face these challenges in their professional duties. It is critical because the nurses are entrusted with patients’ lives. Thus their undertakings and challenges should be considered with much regard. According to Miller (2016), fatigue and burnout in the workplace can be detrimental as it is likely to slow the working process. In addition, it jeopardizes the effectiveness of employees. Importantly it reduces the aspects of efficiency on an individual employee. The situation is worsened in the case of medics who are entrusted with the lives of patients. The topic on fatigue and burnout is important and justified as it will ensure findings for the reasons for the burnout and provide analysis on the same. The analysis of the findings for this topic is essential as it creates the potential threshold and benchmark at which cases can be monitored to prevent the effects which can be caused by these problems. Hence the purpose of this topic is to ensure the reasons for fatigue and burnout which can help in finding solutions pertaining to the challenges faced by nurses.
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Evidence-Based Findings
According to findings, it is realized that burnout is a global phenomenon in various workplaces and can result in negative outcomes for employees. In the field of nursing specifically, it is linked to both satisfaction and retention. In addition, burnout is linked to some common ailments and health altering conditions. Lastly, burnout is directly connected to health problems such as depression, immune function, and cardiovascular mobility ( Miller, 2016). With the health challenges, it is within the right context to point out that inasmuch as nurses can be seen as the solution to the challenges, if not given necessary consideration they can fall victims of circumstances. Again as a further finding, burnout is a challenge which occurs in all professions. It is significant to note the fact that even major corporations face the challenge of burnout and fatigue as they try to achieve their targets.
The aspect of stress varies with the daily activities among individuals as well the physical environment which someone finds self. Looking at the relationship between stress and fatigue and burnout in nursing, there are insights built on the connection between these two variables. Importantly, the link between stress and fatigue and burnout can be concluded as insidious ( Waddill-Goad, 2018). From the findings linked to the physical environment and daily activities, it can be stated that the nursing profession is demanding and exposes nurses to varying levels of fatigue and stress. There is a connection between the healthcare givers and safety. Elements such as cynical detachment, emotional exhaustion as well as physical fatigue are likely to affect caregivers such as nurses in that it erodes their ability to develop sympathy for patients ( Waddill-Goad, 2018). It can be rightfully stated the inability of nurses to be compassionate to their patients compromises their work quality. Additionally, there is a compromise in the attention given to the patients by these nurses. This divided attention is caused by emotional stress.
In a study to find out the determinants of compassion satisfaction, fatigue, burnout, and stress in nursing practice, researchers found that stressful mindsets and negative compassion are likely to enhance compassion fatigue. However, positive compassion marked by sociality is likely to promote satisfaction (Zhang, Zhang, Han, Li, & Wang, 2018). It can be concluded from this finding that positive compassion is a key value in changing the intensity of the ordeal undergone by the nurses. It is also learned that there are some other factors contributing to the high levels of burnout, fatigue, and stress which include frequent logistical tasks, patient care tasks, and multitasking. There are implications imposed on the nursing profession by these variables such as compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. For the latter, there is the aspect of impediments and jeopardy remitted on the success of a properly flowing nursing practice (Zhang et al., 2018). From this, it is apparent that there are many factors leading to compassion fatigue not only emotional. Also, it is learned that fatigue is related to repetitive daily activities that are physically or mentally demanding.
A concept analysis on the compassion fatigue aimed at developing the mitigation measures which can be employed in the issue results into methodologies necessary for the same. It is realized that compassion fatigue is a phenomenon which affects various professions. Nevertheless, the case is more pronounced in nurses. This is as a result of the working conditions the nurses are exposed to. There is a lot of requirements and involvement by nurses in their line of duty (Peters, 2018). As per these findings, it is appropriate to ascertain that contrary to other professions, nursing is more involving and this can be associated with the problem of burnout and fatigue.
Reaction and Analysis
In order to prevent and reduce the cases of nursing burnout and fatigue, there are recommendations which should be followed. The following recommendations can be derived from the earlier readings. There is a need for spelling out clearly the expected workload with reasonable timelines for each nurse every day. This should be enhanced through the proper use of the available resources. Also, there is a need for the increase in work capital especially in the decision-making process which needs more concise involvement. In seeing into it that there is a success in the fight against burnout, there is a need for the personal involvement through scientific interventions upon learning of cases of burnout ( Miller, 2016). With this, it is expected that an individual nurse should take charge of their personal interventions in case fatigue. This is likely to imbue the fact that responsibility among the individuals is one of the formations and pillar at which compassion fatigue is reduced among the nurses.
Due to advancement in the healthcare sector where nurses have more responsibilities and an increase in the number of patients seeking healthcare services, it is realized that the workload on nurses will gradually increase, therefore, leading to more cases of burnout and fatigue. Again it is within the individual knowledge that there exist cases and possibilities of role associated implication as well as work and duties which are heavily loaded with stress. It thus calls on individual nurses as well as the organizations to initiate and supervise the health issues and the wellbeing of the stakeholders especially the nurses ( Waddill-Goad, 2018). This shows that there are challenges in mitigation interventions if at all there is no separation of nature of these happenings in terms of the scope and effects. It is realized that there is an expectation of about 11.5 million workers to be absorbed in the healthcare industry ( Waddill-Goad, 2018). Important for this is that these people should be taken through training which can prepare them to cope up with stressful situations. The training should also involve measures that can be utilized to overcome fatigue and incidences of burnout.
On the issues of compassion fatigue and burnouts, it is learned that compassion fatigue has a greater contribution to burnout. However, compassion satisfaction has an inverse connection with burnouts. As pointed out earlier, stress and fatigue can result in negative burnouts. Contrary, sociality and positive compassion may lead to satisfaction among the workers. Important to note is that compassion relations with fatigue and other factors should be researched more as there are inadequate datasets to affirm validation. Specifically, this should be carried out for a specific homogeneous population (Zhang et al., 2018). This, for instance, is seen as a way to reduce the cases of impurities in data. It is essential in that it will indicate with precision the actual effects of compassion on the specific profession like in this case nursing.
It is learned that despite other professions falling at risks associated with compassion fatigue, it is apparent that for the case of nursing practice, the situation is intensified. Therefore, in order to realize the change and correction of this situation, there is a need for the intervention. The best interventions for the rectification of the situation is through the designing of professional boundaries to isolate the cases in terms of the professional requirements. In addition, there is a need for self-care measures such as an individual nurse taken upon himself to see into it that he manages the situation. This is in line with the idea of self-regulation which will see that an individual is not waiting for the organizational procedures. Lastly, there is a need for awareness creation in which the nurses are emancipated and sensitized on the issues through training (Peters, 2018). The training is significant as it will create an enabling environment at which individuals can prepare for the conditions marked by stress.
It can be concluded that nursing as a profession is demanding a lot in terms of professional output. The situation is worsened by the fact that there is the emergence of different duties which are individual imposed. The advancement in technology is seen as one of the contributing factors to the incidents of fatigue. These factors have led to ineffective and inefficiency in the nursing practice. In order to realize the full potential in terms of output from nurses, it is necessary that they are taken through emancipation and sensitization on how to handle burnout and fatigue prior to them joining the nursing profession. Again there is a need for the filling of the gap existing in the datasets for the compassionate relations with fatigue and burnout.
References
Miller, E. T. (2016). Preventing Burnout. Rehabilitation Nursing, 41(2) , 65–66. doi:10.1002/rnj.267.
Peters, E. (2018, October). Compassion fatigue in nursing: A concept analysis. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 466-480).
Waddill-Goad, S. M. (2018). Stress, Fatigue, and Burnout in Nursing. Journal of Radiology Nursing .
Zhang, Y. Y., Zhang, C., Han, X. R., Li, W., & Wang, Y. L. (2018). Determinants of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout in nursing: A correlative meta-analysis. Medicine , 97 (26).
