Nurse Fatigue

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

If nurses are sleepy, and burnout, they might tend to find a shortcut of giving care to the patient. These kind of shortcut can create medication errors, poor quality of care given, and can cause death.

Nurses spend most of their time taking care of their patients that they forget to be mindful of their own wellbeing. It is very important for nurses to take care of themselves because it is reflected through the care they provide to their patients. Sleep deprivation can increase the chances of a nurse miscalculating a dosage, which can be fatal to a patient’s life or injure themselves by forgetting proper body mechanics. Not having enough sleep and overworking themselves can be the cause for this simple mistake that could have been avoided through self-care. Having at least 8 hours a sleep a night is just one of the few ways a nurse can manage healthy living. A nurse’s work schedule can consists of mainly over

When nurses experience fatigue due to excessive overtime, effects that can occur are reduced decision making ability, reduced communication skills, increased forgetfulness, increased tendency of risk taking, reduced ability to handle stress on the job, decreased ability to do complex planning, and inability to recall details which can all danger patients wellbeing. Unfortunately even with all the

Nurse staffing have an effect on a variety of areas within nursing. Quality of care is usually affected. Hospitals with low staffing tend to have higher incidence of poor patient outcomes. Martin, (2015) wrote an article on how insufficient nursing staff increases workload and job dissatisfaction, which in effect decreases total patient care over all. When nurse staffing is inadequate, the ability to practice ethically becomes questionable. Time worked, overtime, and total hours per week have significant effect on errors. When nurses works long hours, the more likely errors will be made. He also argued that inadequate staffing not only affects their patients but also their loved ones, future and current nursing staff, and the hospitals in which they are employed. An unrealistic workload may result in chronic fatigue, poor sleep patterns, and absenteeism thus affecting the patients they take care of.

Within the recent years, hospitals and medical facilities have been experiencing nursing shortages that necessitate more nurses to be present to compensate for the care needed to be given. This requires nurses to be dealt with imperative extended work hours along with their normal shifts with no denial or excuse accepted. Working extra hours are accompanied with negative effects that have an impact on the nurse, coworkers, and patients. A major concern that occurs with overtime is that nurses become fatigued or burnout. Fatigue that is experienced is a result of sleep deprivation from working overtime that is associated with arduousness neurobehavioral functioning

Long-term effects of fatigue can lead to nursing "burn out" and decreased job satisfaction, often leading to self-termination within a year (Maust Martin, 2015). In a qualitative study performed many nurses negatively correlated their level of fatigue with job satisfaction. One participant discussed feelings of decreased patience and being short in responses to others, often lacking compassion for those who needed support. Another participant stated that the level of fatigue she continuously undergoes would more than likely contribute to her leaving her position as a floor nurse within the years (Steege, Rainbow, 2017). However, this is not the only negative impact of fatigue on a nurse’s

Inadequate sleep and resulting fatigue has major implications on the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care. Fatigue can also be costly to employers, resulting in increases in health care and workers’ compensation costs, early disability, recruitment and training costs, and legal fees. In 2014, the Professional Issues Panel on Nurse Fatigue led the effort to update ANA’s position statement on nurse fatigue. “Registered nurses and employers in all care settings must collaborate to reduce the risks of nurse fatigue and sleepiness associated with shift work and long work hours. Evidence-based strategies must be implemented to proactively address nurse fatigue and sleepiness and to promote the health, safety, and wellness of registered nurses and ensure optimal patient outcomes.” This statement articulates the American Nurses Association’s (ANA)

The focus of the red team’s project is Nurse’s Fatigue. Brunt (2017), defines nurse’s fatigue as a cognitive and physical impaired function. The cause of fatigue results from shifts longer than 12 hours or mental exertion with inadequate rest. The significance of the problem is having fatigue nurses work on the floor, endangering patients and increasing hospital errors. MacPhee, Dahinten and Havaei (2017), concluded that 89% of observed performance can potentially interrupt patient safety and diminish the nurse’s true ability in multiple levels. The health outcomes include, low-quality of patient care leading to a loss of a patient’s life, job dissatisfaction and burnout nurses. The ability to care for the patients becomes compromised resulting to an unsatisfied job performance. For instance, higher fall rates and an increase in morbidity or mortality rate. According to the ANA (2017), the statistic documentation included 50% were exhausted, 40% felt powerless with quality patient care and 26 % are frightened for their patients. The purpose of this paper is to interpret the two articles that will benefit the group’s project. This paper will describe the literature, the concept, the methods, the participants involved and the instruments used during the researcher’s study.

A nurse’s typical day isn’t without stress; it is usually a lot of complex planning, critical thinking, time management, an abundance of communications with all departments of the hospital, and documenting events that have happened throughout the day on their entire patient assignment. “Nurses who are mandated following the completion of their regular shift are often ill-equipped to continue working. They have not planned for that situation with: proper advanced rest, arrangements for

The broad research problem leading to this study is the belief that nursing shortage in facilities leads to patient safety issues. The review of available literature on this topic shows strong evidence that lower nurse staffing levels in hospitals are associated with worse patient outcomes. Some of these outcomes include very high patient to nurse ratio, fatigue for nurses leading to costly medical mistakes, social environment, nursing staff attrition from the most affected facilities. The study specifically attempts to find a way to understand how nurse

I chose this topic because, I want to go into the medical field and fatigue in nursing is one of the biggest problems in this field. This problem is affecting both the nurses and patients. The nurses aren't able to stay on task, which is putting the patient's health at risk. “According to a study by Australian researchers, there is a 3.4% chance of an error occurring when nurses obtain six hours or less of sleep during

The risks of making an error were significantly increased when work shifts were longer than twelve hours, when nurses worked overtime, or when they worked more than forty hours per week. (Trossman, 2009). Working longer hours in a high stress area will always increase the error rate. Designating an adequate number of RN positions to ensure nurses work an appropriate schedule without overtime and that their workload allows for breaks. Managerial staff must work to develop specific policies about the length of work times based on the setting, patient and provider needs. Those policies should limit nurses from working more than 12.5 consecutive hours. Provide education for all care providers on the hazards and causes of fatigue. Continue to document unsafe staffing conditions and work with others to change the current work culture so that it recognizes the effects of fatigue on patient safety, as well as the nurse. (Berger, et al. 2006)

Long shifts and late nights are common when working as a nurse. There is also the pressure of demanding patients and exposure to illness. This can add mental stress and physical wear on a nurse.

Every day, during every shift, nurses can experience fatigue of their minds, bodies, and spirits. Workload, work hours, work structures, and many other factors can indirectly or directly cause and affect safety (Dorrian, J., Lamond, N., Dawson, 2000).