In the US, the health care system is hell-bent at ensuring patients get the best possible care at an affordable cost. These two conditions are essentially counter-intuitive as for them to be achieved, there is a likelihood that healthcare professionals are going to be strained. The strain if prolonged could likely lead to burnout. Moreover, the healthcare system is experiencing drastic changes as a result of technological advancements such as new payment and delivery approaches, electronic health records and patient portals which result in altering of normal processes (Dyrbyre et al., 2017). Adopting to new changing processes, all of which is required of the Healthcare professionals, could be overwhelming and might also catalyze symptoms of burnout.
Benefits offered to various health professionals vary and they include paid leave days, more allowances among other benefits. These benefits are put in place to counteract the burnout that could ensue among healthcare workers (Lyndon,2016). This research paper aims to analyze the relationship that exists between burnout and benefits offered. The research question in this is case therefore is, how does healthcare benefits negate a healthcare professionals’ burnout effects on patient care? And is it effective?
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Professional quality of life for healthcare professionals is a two-sided sword and comprises both the negative and positive aspects. In retrospect, the two aspects actually exist concurrently owing to the fact that patient care is demanding and is one that needs to be constantly of quality. The positive aspects are what brings about job satisfaction among health care workers and consequently quality care. For instance, benefits and provision of career advancement opportunities. Negative aspects, on the other hand, are what are likely to reduce the quality of patient care and in this case, an example would be burnout. Burnout, in the sense of the word, refers to a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization that leads to decreased personal accomplishment at work (Lyndon, 2016). According to Reith (2018), a burnout is a blend of exhaustion, perceived inefficacy and cynicism that has been brought about by long-term job stress.
The effects of burnout as established, not only leads to a poor well-being of the healthcare provider but is also likely to be detrimental to patient care. For example, there is a strong correlation between major medical errors by a surgeon and the surgeon’s degree of burnout (Shanafelt et al., 2010). Moreover, among nurses, high patient mortality rates as well as dissemination of hospital-transmitted infections are associated with higher levels of burnout. Furthermore, medical students experiencing burnout, are likely to be involved in dishonest clinical behaviors, decreased sense of altruism and alcohol abuse (Reith,2018).
Institutionally, burnouts are damaging as they may result in increased thoughts of quitting among nurses and physicians ( Dyrbye et al., 2017) . Burnouts also result in an overall reduction of workforce efficacy. Basically, burnouts contribute negatively to the workforce numbers which are already overstretched with an impending shortages of healthcare workers looming. Enhanced benefits on the other hand, is touted to be key in ensuring that the burnout is kept at bay. These benefits could include extended paid leaves, increased salaries and allowances and many more incentives (Rossales et al., 2013). However, there are very few studies that correlate enhanced benefits with decreased burnout among healthcare providers hence the reason for this study.
Doctors are particularly susceptible to experiencing burnout due to the levels of stress they experience in the course of executing their mandate. Burnout affects them and put them at a greater risk of making poor decisions, being hostile towards patients as well as having difficult relationships with coworkers. The paper delves into how burnout in doctors can be mitigated through a number of strategies so as ensure that the quality of patient care is maintained and improved even more. The paper further argues that prevention of burnout through incorporation of certain incentives is far more beneficial than treatment of burnout in doctors themselves.
Burnout has reached unimaginable levels among healthcare professionals in the United States today. Approximately half of the physicians and one third of the nurses experience symptoms of burnout. Burnout, in itself, is one of the biggest threats to patient care and may exacerbate the already bad physician shortage. The paper paints a picture of problems burnouts in the healthcare sector are likely to cause as well as recommendations to prevent and reduce burnout rates among healthcare professionals. The paper recognizes that burnout is a major problem plaguing the 21st century and if not urgently addressed the epidemic may have irreversible consequences on patient care in the US.
Job dissatisfaction among healthcare workers, nurses in particular, are not only costly when you factor in labor disputes, but also pose a risk to the patients to be treated. High job dissatisfaction and burnout among nurses are prevalent in hospitals and nursing homes. The dissatisfaction stems from their health benefits and therefore calls for a review so as to match their benefits with other white-collar jobs. The paper argues that patient dissatisfaction is rife in areas where nurses experience burnout and poor working conditions. Moreover, the paper serves to depict burnouts among nurses are much more prevalent in areas where the nurses are not satisfied with the health benefits.
References
Lyndon, A. (2016). Burnout among health professionals and its effect on patient safety. Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality .
Dyrbye, L. N., Shanafelt, T. D., Sinsky, C. A., Cipriano, P. F., Bhatt, J., Ommaya, A., ... & Meyers, D. (2017). Burnout among health care professionals: A call to explore and address this underrecognized threat to safe, high-quality care. NAM Perspectives .
Reith, T. P. (2018). Burnout in United States Healthcare Professionals: A Narrative Review. Cureus , 10 (12).
Shanafelt, T. D., Balch, C. M., Bechamps, G., Russell, T., Dyrbye, L., Satele, D., ... & Freischlag, J. (2010). Burnout and medical errors among American surgeons. Annals of surgery , 251 (6), 995-1000.
Rosales, R. A., Labrague, L. J., & Rosales, G. L. (2013). Nurses' Job satisfaction and Burnout: Is there a connection?. International Journal of Advanced Nursing Studies , 2 (1), 1.
Kumar, S. (2016). Burnout and doctors: prevalence, prevention and intervention. In Healthcare (Vol. 4, No. 3, p. 37). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.
Reith, T. P. (2018). Burnout in United States Healthcare Professionals: A Narrative Review. Cureus , 10 (12).
McHugh, M. D., Kutney-Lee, A., Cimiotti, J. P., Sloane, D. M., & Aiken, L. H. (2011). Nurses’ widespread job dissatisfaction, burnout, and frustration with health benefits signal problems for patient care. Health Affairs , 30 (2), 202-210.
