Healthcare workers are likely to be under stress when they face situations with the pressure they are incapable of handling. According to Mbodoaka (2017), stress is very unhealthy to an employee as well as very costly to the healthcare organization. Work overload and lack of training are stressors in a healthcare organization affecting negatively the midwifery nurses' overall wellbeing as well as their work performance. Organizational stress is associated with nurses' illnesses such as depression, increased irritability, and distress.
The stressing factors highly related to work overload include night calls, long hours, and handling emergencies of critically ill patients. The stressful work environment under which the maternity nurses operate tends to possess various stressful distractions, which also affects the care they give to the patients (Khademian, 2019). The organizational stress resulting from work overload and lack of training negatively affects organizational commitment and job satisfaction, which are among the major factors involved in the prediction of profitability and productivity. According to Khademian (2019), continued exposures to the workload stressors result in burnout syndrome in which one experiences the psychological and physical health impairment, loss of energy, economic stagnation, and compromised performance.
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Mutual support is the initiative of improving patient safety and the reduction of work overloads in maternity nurses' situations. According to MBidoaka (2017), maternity nurses with work overloads are incapable of establishing a balance between family and work, emotionally exhausted, while portraying poor work performance in the processes of care delivery. Therefore, nurses' stress is associated with emotional exhaustion with many near-misses and injuries in the workplace. Burnout, as a consequence of work overload manifest, in the private and public lives of nurses with increased rates of absenteeism, lack of work effectiveness, and increased sick leaves. Therefore, reduction in medical errors, low rates of absenteeism, reduced sick leaves is an indication of better teamwork with other nurses willing to help whenever asked for help and willing to ask for help when incapable of delivering quality.
In the plan implementation of mutual support initiative, provision of constructive and timely feedback through face-to-face and telephone channels of communication nurses working in the maternity department can ensure they achieve their quality care (Khademian, 2019). Changing attitudes with all the members willing to offer support to others with work overload, nurses will adopt various communication channels to seek necessary help. In the application of the mutual support initiative, the effectiveness of the model will be calculated by the number of calls made for help comparing to the number of people that appeared to offer a helping hand. Therefore, the quantitative techniques are employed in the mathematical calculation with the qualitative approaches explaining the findings obtained.
Professionally, advocating for clients' effective care and seeking help when necessary patient safety is guaranteed. According to Khademian (2019), the two characteristics in mutual support initiative exists beyond the cultural norms in which most people view the act of seeking help from other team members as a negative trait depicting incapability and laziness. The existing cultural norms can hinder the mutual support important aspect of advocating for patient care when something threatens their wellbeing or health. Therefore, nurses willing to seek help whenever work overload is likely to affect the quality of care patient safety is achieved due to the reduction of near misses or medical errors that risks life (Khademian, 2019). Hence, mutual support is likely to improve care quality and ensure patient's safety if the various communication channels are well utilized, including phones, to relay the messages. Moreover, the application of social platforms in which the nurses can share their work experiences and seek help whenever necessary from other team members will help the initiative achieve its intended purposes.
The mutual support initiative is a technique that is likely to overcome the cultural barriers in the healthcare organization towards ensuring patient’s safety (Khademian, 2019). With every team member becoming responsible and being committed to ensuring the patient's safety, the healthcare environment will become safer and accommodating to both the nurses and the clients. Mutual support initiative is a win situation in protecting the health condition of the healthcare practitioner and their work performance, which will ensure quality care, as every member becomes willing to protect each other from work overload.
References
Khademian, Z. (2019). Mutual Support: A Solution to Improve Patient Safety During Nurses’ Work Overload. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research , 24 (6), 475.
Mbidoaka, K. C. (2017). Strategies to Reduce Effects of Organizational Stress in Health Care Workplaces.
