Long Day Shift In Nursing

You are about to go on work experience at a training centre for young adults with learning disabilities. Some of the young adults also

Staff nurses have great responsibilities in caring for patients. Often, these nurses experience heavy workload. Heavy patient load and stress contributes to burnout. Why is burnout important to discuss in relation to nurses? Burnout affects the performance of the nurse and the quality of care he or she provides to the patient. Therefore, it is imperative that staff nurses decrease the possibility of burnout and increase or maintain excitement and enjoyment in the field of nursing. If nurses do so, they will find joy in their work and quality of patient care will be increased. Contributors to burnout and

The nursing handover was defined in 1969 by Clair and Thrussel as the oral communication of pertinent information about patients. This was supported by Thurgood in 1995 who adopted the view that patient centred care is central to any definition of handover and that it is its primary function.

Prioritizing is also necessary tool for effective time management. Nurses have to prioritize tasks on their route and finish tasks from high to low priority order (Waterworth, 2003). In addition, nurses should be careful of some priority setting traps. The first trap is "whatever hits first" which means a nurse responds to tasks that happen first instead of thinking twice and then responding. The second trap is the "squeaky wheel", a patient who is able to gather the most attention from a nurse to hear his or her urgent request may not be the

Traditionally nurses delivered clinical information about the patient, the clinical events on their shift and the plan of care to the oncoming shift to ensure continuity of care and to make sure that their colleagues were informed about tasks or instructions that needed to be completed by the next shift. This process had a variety of names; report, handover or handoff. The format was often different from unit to unit. It usually took place in an off stage room or office or at a charting station from away from the

The nursing topic of interest is bedside handover, which is the concept of conducting shift handover at the patient’s bed instead of doing it at the front desk.

Hogston and Simpson (2002) describe this traditional task-orientated method of nursing care as contrary to the nursing process, compromising the concept of individualised patient centred care. Price (2006) supports this view, suggesting that patient-centred care requires the nurse to be flexible and not confined to set care pathways or task-orientated methods. I complied with functional nursing and completed tasks assigned to me which Higginson (2006) states many first year nursing students do as they are preoccupied with worries about their ability to perform nursing duties. However, through this I found that I did not engage completely with the patients which according to Squire (2001) would have built a good, therapeutic and interpersonal relationship with the patients. Reflecting using Benner (1984), in terms of starting to become a proficient and capable staff nurse, I was a novice. Rather (2007) states that novices are taught rules to help them perform, and although I was not taught these rules within my first placement I still adhered to them and reflecting back I would consider my practice as limited and inflexible due to these rules. Consequently I saw managerial skills such as time management, prioritising and delegation beyond my capabilities, Hill and Howlett (2005) state feeling incapable of managing patient care is normal for a first year student nurse.

AT 7.15AM I CLOCK IN AND TAKE MY COAT AND BAG OFF AND LOCK THEM IN MY LOCKER SO I AM READY TO START MY SHIFT STRAIGHT AWAY, EVEN THOUGH I SOMETIMES SOCIALISE WITH SOME OF THE STAFF I WORK WITH I ENSURE I AM IN THE RIGHT FRAME OF MIND TO WORD PROFFESIONALLY WITH THEM AND NOT PERSONALLY SO THAT WE ARE ABLE TO WORK AS PART OF A TEAM AND ARE ABLE TO DO THE JOBS THAT WE ARE EMPLOYED TO DO, THEN I WILL WALK INTO THE DINING ROOM TO WAIT FOR THE NIGHTSTAFF WHO ARE ON, ONCE ALL THE STAFF FOR THE MORNING SHIFT HAVE ARRIVED THE SENIOR MEMBER OF THE NIGHT SHIFT WILL GIVE HANDOVER TO ALL THE STAFF WHO ARE STARTING THE MORNING SHIFT. THEY WILL GO THROUGH THE LIST OF RESIDENTS

Every morning the charge nurse from the night shift does a huddle between 7:30am and 8am. All of the staff members participate in the huddle, including the ones coming and leaving. The charge nurse gives a report of the main points of what is going on in the unit, how many patients they have, who is going to be admitted, or transferred. Also, if any patient is on one to one care. The charge nurse mentioned the acuity of the patients. They give thanks to nurses and patient care technicians who did an excellent job. The manager gives a brief up date of how the day is going to be, and any news she has for the staff.

After choosing to help my co-worker, to ensure that the client was kept clean and comfortable, I felt that this was my main priority in this situation. As an accountable Healthcare worker it sates within my code of conduct. That I have to make sure that I give care to all clients and treat every person as an individual, with dignity and respect at all times. However, I could still see, and understand why that staff nurse had to explain to me why I had to listen and take instruction.

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the structures, processes, and perceptions of the outcomes of bedside handovers in nursing practice.

Patients in a hospital and/or healthcare facilities have to be cared for all day and all night, everyday of the week by nurses. The usual way to fulfill this need is to divide up the day into three 8-hour shifts. Different shifts have been put into place to help improve nurse satisfaction, decrease the nursing shortage and save the hospital money. The 24-hour day is made up of two 12-hour shifts; 12 hours in the day and 12 hours at night. There has been quite an ongoing debate over the years regarding this issue of nurses working over 8 hours in a single day. Many people, such as hospital nursing administrators, have reason to believe that working long hour shifts causes more errors in

Stressful work environments, long work hours and inadequate sleep all contribute to an increase in physical and mental exhaustion amongst nurses. Typically, people choose nursing as a career to help others and to make a difference in their lives, without realizing the number of duties this career demands. Nurses may suffer in silence when they are experiencing stress. The effects can impact safe and reliable care by decreasing job satisfaction, decreasing productivity, causing poor personal health, and compromising patient care. Many facilities would benefit from implementing evidence-based strategies to address nurse fatigue and burnout.

Nando Pelusi's article, "The Right Way to Rock the Boat", is an informative/explanatory essay that tells us why we, as a society, are filled with timidness and why we should overcome this. Timidness runs in our society because are ancestors, for so long, were afraid that having conflicts with people could cause them to be murdered. Pelusi was saying that this way of existing has existed for so long that it has become the norm. This new norm has also caused us to think so highly of other people's opinions, thus limiting our desire to express ourselves. The goal of this essay is to get people to understand that assertiveness is okay and should not be shunned, as it is a necessity in today's environment.

As a learning disability nursing student, I have learned about the importance of the nurse’s role in empowerment and health promotion with individuals with learning disability. The modules have helped develop my knowledge and skills on working in partnership with individuals and their families/carers using person-centred approach. making information accessible to them.