Coping Strategies For Stress And Burnout Analysis

On reading this article and identifying the study, there was a clear insight on how death and dying, and even improved health, impacted those nurses (Conte, 2014). Nurses, who worked closely with their patients, through the perils and suffering, culminating of death and losses, had grief not readily explored to enable that comfort zone (Conte, 2014).

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

To begin with, nurses are prone to deal with stressful events. As a nurse you are exposed to traumatic situations especially when it comes to witnessing death. Even though nurses are taught to deal with complications among patients, staff or any circumstance there will always be events that can’t be unseen. According to Skorobogatova, “Long-lasting stress that is common in nursing and sometimes leads to mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion may subsequently lead to burnout” (Skorobogatova et al, 2017). In other words, it depends on how one might act in a stressful event. Stressful experiences can either push an individual over the edge in both mental and physical state. On the other hand, stress can also be used as an opportunity allowing

Hospice patients often receive palliative care to help them cope with the stress, pain, and anxiety that comes with hospice care. Galfin, Watkins, and Harlow (2011) explored the need to train palliative care nurses how to provide not just physical care, but also psychological care. The authors reference previous studies that addressed similar training programs, but point out that many lack an explanation of what the palliative care entails, or statistical evidence to show if guided self-help improved patient’s psychological distress.

Compassion fatigue is widely known in the health care profession. Nurses working overtime and long working days to provide care for the patient and the patient’s families are a continuous stress on a nurse’s emotional and physical well-being especially if the nurse is providing the patient with end of life care as this contributes to both physical and mental work. Vital

Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and

Nurses are prone to deal with death, whether they would prefer it or not. Although, there is an increase of medical advances to slow the progression of death, it is inevitable that patients will die. When a patient dies, nurses must deal with the grief and emotions that encompasses death. Due to the nature of how often nurses deal with death, it leads to an increase awareness of how they will someday face their own death. The increase in emotions and grief leads to an overwhelming increase in stress for nurses. Continuous increase in stress can lead to burn out in nurses. Therefore, nurses must learn effective coping methods of death to reduce any devastating emotions and maintain professionalism.

Hospice psychologist work is to conduct some research to understand the psychological aspects of caring terminally ill patients and their families.

3 which they keep seeing in their mind, and can still affect them through avoidant behavior, and intrusive thoughts, which goes by the name of Compassion Fatigue (2012). Laura Browning’s article states “burnout progresses across three phases: high expectations of control, reactance, and helplessness” (pgs. 248-254, 2007). To find out if a nurse has burnout the Maslach Burnout Inventory is used; this has 22 questions that assess healthcare professionals for burnout. Questions on the questionnaire include how the person feels when they go to work, if they can deal with their patients and if they find satisfaction in their work (Ozcakar, 2012). According to Dr. Paul Griner, exhaustion from long hours of working, problems at work and personal problems at home can influence the person to be more susceptible to nursing

Nurses also provide end of life, and post mortem care. When a patient dies, the nurse often grieves alongside the family and helps to provide them with emotional support (Hecktman, 2012). Although the prognoses of childhood cancer have improved drastically over the last 30 years, many children still succumb to the disease. Nurses are the ones who provide constant bedside care, and often “must confront the limits of what medicine can do for people” (Schuster, 2013). This can prove to be difficult and bring on feelings of hopelessness and as though they are not helping their patients at all. Patients can leave lasting impacts on the nursing staff, and when multiple children die while in their care, the nurse may begin to experience cumulative loss. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death for children in Canada, and therefore, pediatric oncology nurses are often exposed to death on a routine basis, with little time to grieve between the deaths. It is imperative that nurses are aware of their stressors and how they respond to stress in order to effectively care for their patients.

This section examines the literature relevant to the efficacy of supervision in hospice professional as it relates to job burnout among them. This question is an important one because hospice professionals cope with loss on their job frequently. An unique challenge that is faced by hospice professionals is that every patient they care for will die and this leaves the grieving family to be supported. The care that hospice professionals provide requires them to become an intimate part of the patients live. The need for effective supervisions is highly needed in hospice professionals and is crucial in aiding them to serve patients and families in challenging times. This section will highlight research that documents severity

Hospice’s main focus is on the patients and their needs. As shown on www.nhpco.org, the website for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, their vision for patients and families is one where individuals and families facing serious illness, death, and grief will experience the best that humankind can offer (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 1). With this in mind, those who are involved with Hospice work to provide patients with relief from their symptoms and try to lift the weight off of their shoulders, also known as the Palliative Care part of Hospice. Hospice care involves a team-oriented approach, where members of the organization will work together to ensure the the patient, and their family as well, receive compassionate care (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 1). This includes physical care, such as pain management, emotional care, such as relieving stress, and spiritual care. Emotional and spiritual

Similar to physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion results from depletion of emotional resources and failure to restore one’s own emotional equilibrium. (Moore, 2009, p. 1) In today’s busy society the demands of life, job and family can be excessive and overwhelming. Combine these demands with the additional stressors of caring for another person or persons, increased demands of productivity with decreased personnel and the unrealistic expectations of one’s self or others and place all of this burden on one person, this would adequately describe the 21st century nurse. Nurses are continually engaged in emotional relationships with patients and their families which call upon the nurse to be in a constant supporting role. One reaches emotional exhaustion when this burden becomes too heavy to carry

The nurse needs to care for the patient holistically. They need to not only focus on their physical needs, but also the emotional and spiritual aspects. “For many patients, the integration of spiritual beliefs in the therapeutic process is vital and has been found to correlate with positive health outcomes” (Zyga, 2015, p.1). In the hospice that Ms. Stark works in, they do not wear scrubs, because they want the patients to feel as “normal” as possible. They do not want their patient’s neighbors to know something is going on due to medical professionals in scrubs walking in and out of the house. Ms. Stark said one of the most important things is providing comfort and helping their patients close certain doors and deal with things they may not have previously. The nurses are able to assist their patients in doing things they enjoy or adapting those activities. They want to help patients do what they enjoy as long as possible. The nurses may need to brainstorm and figure out what they can do in order to keep the patients as comfortable as possible. Some patients who are nearing the end of their life feel very anxious and may need someone to voice their concerns to. The nurse can be a listening ear in this situation. Nursing care is so much more than passing a medication to solve a problem. When working with patients on hospice, the nurses are almost always working with vulnerable adults. “Reporting and documenting

Any work environment can have stressful aspects that can negatively affect the employees’ performance and may lead to burnout. Oftentimes when employees are stressed or burnout their commitment at the job may begin to weaken and they may lose satisfaction. Many organizations have recognized that workers burnout is the result of aggravated chronic work stressors and embodied by enervation and inefficacy. This author will discuss the impact of stress and worker burnout on organizations. Moreover, this author will consider the implication of stress and worker burnout on the employee, as well as the short- and long-term productivity of a business.