The American Association Of Critical Care Nurses

According to Suzanne Gordon “ whether young or old, nurses are disillusioned because they believe that health care systems guided by bottom-line concerns simply don’t recognize the specificity of their work” (234). Nursing is more demanding than many other professions or occupations, due to the combination of difficult patients, exhausting schedules and arduous physical work (Gordon 235). It can take a significant emotional toll on many, hence the higher levels of burnout. Job dissatisfaction as a result of increased workloads and unreasonable demands, such as inappropriate nurse staffing levels, was cited as the number one reason that drives many experienced nurses to leave the profession (Sanford 38+). Studies have shown that such working conditions also affected the retention of new graduate nurses by leaving their first hospital jobs within two years of graduating (Sanford 38+).

Those of us who graduated from nursing school and started their first job were full of dreams, aspirations, and had every intention of making a difference. Now fast forward five years; these same nurses have been on their feet for 16 hours and have not had time to eat or use the bathroom since leaving their homes this morning. The call lights will not stop going off long enough for them to give report to the oncoming nurses and once again they are late for their children’s dance recitals or soccer games. They can forget about trying to squeeze a yoga class in this week. I understand what it is like to rush to your car feeling as if some important task was forgotten; was Mr. Smith’s tube feed restarted, did room 8 receive their pain medication? Nurses all over the world are experiencing “burnout”. To avoid burnout, nurses must properly care for themselves by separating work from personal life, knowing when to say no, and making time for enjoyable activities to manage stress, because we cannot provide quality patient care if we are neglecting ourselves.

Maintaining a healthy work environment is important for the overall health of nurses, and for the

Nurses find themselves in the middle of a complex health care system between the financial side and patient safety. A professional nurse’s goal is to provide safe, quality, patient care. However, nurses often fail to meet this goal due to the variability in patient acuity, the unpredictable workload of nurses, and institutional budget constraints (ANA, 2014). According to the American Nurses Association (2014) research shows that lower staffing levels of registered nurses correlate with poor patient outcomes, as well as negative nurse outcomes, such as physical injury and ‘burnout.’

Working with the available staff increases the nurses’ workload and the risk for patients’ negative outcomes. Heavy nursing workload adversely affects patient safety and negatively affects nursing job satisfaction (Carayon & Gurses, 2008, p. 1). Furthermore, a study on the hospital nurse shortage and the California legislation about minimum hospital patient-to-nurse ratios concluded that the nurse staffing levels affect patients’ outcomes detrimentally; for each additional patient per nurse was associated with a 7% increase in the likelihood of dying within 30 days of admission and a 7% increase in the odds of failure-to-rescue. In addition, this study concluded that 23% of the nurses were associated with burnout and a 15% increase in job dissatisfaction (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane, Sochalski, & Silber, 2002, p.

Critical care nurses provide advanced nursing care for patients in critical or cornary care units. The preparatin required to become a critical care nurse education wise most occupations require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or even a associates degree. The job training required however employees usually need any where from one to two years of training involving both on-the-job and informal training with experiened workers.

Through experience, it is recognizable that the focus of nursing is shifting as a result of cost-efficient care approach, increased workload, and time consumed by performing technical skills. As a consequence, research has shown poor patient outcomes as nurses are faced with decreased amount time to connect with their patients (Canadian Federation of Nurses Union [CFNU], 2012). Despite the tasks at hand, the nursing scope of practice (College of Registered Nurse British Columbia[CRNBC], 2016) is to support patients through all aspects of their health challenges. This means that nurses need to attend to any aspects such as

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) is the world’s largest specialty nursing organization (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). There are more than 100,000 practicing nurses that are members of the AACN (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). The purpose of the AACN is to provide expert knowledge to critical care nurses to create a healthcare system that is driven by the needs of patients and their families (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). Their mission is to promote and enhance consumer health and safety by establishing and maintaining high standards of professional practice (“American Association of Critical Care Nurses,” n.d.). The headquarters for the organization

“Qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur” is Latin for meaning “Who brings the action for the King as well as for himself” (Blumenreich, 1999). An abbreviated form, “qui tam” is a current writ in the United States under the False Claims Act. This act allows a private individual or “whistleblower” with knowledge of present or past fraud committed against the federal government to bring suit on the government’s behalf. As a student embarking on a new career in anesthesia, I feel it very important to have an understanding of a lawsuit brought by the Minnesota Association of Nurse Anesthetists (MANA) against Allina Health Systems, several Minnesota hospitals and a number of anesthesiologists. It is one in which has kept the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) profession thriving and has also been instrumental in bringing about regulatory changes regarding reimbursement of anesthesia professionals.

Nurses retiring will be a major contributor to shortages in the future and monetary incentives is not enough to increase the nursing population (Duvall & Andrews, 2010). There is a physical and mental demand on nurses that are affected, especially when increasing the workload (Duvall & Andrews, 2010). Attracting new nurses by changing the view of nursing as a career option is critical to gaining younger nurses (Duvall & Andrews, 2010). Addressing the stress of nurses, physical and mental, can help with patient outcome and with the public perception (Duvall & Andrews,

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

Healthy Work Environments are important for the overall health of nurses, for successful nurse recruitment and retention, and for the quality and safety of patient care.

There are numerous elements that contribute to stress in the healthcare setting. Nurses’ days are full of physical, mental and emotional demands. There are societal demands and workplace demands created by the shortage. These stressors can become increasingly overwhelming and if there is no stress relief, job performance can and will be hindered. When fatigue and stress combine there is potential for “performance decrements”. This can include diminished capacity to manage a specific level of workload resulting in errors in the delivery of nursing care. This can produce damaging effects on the safety and advantageous outcomes for both the nurses and patients. (Reese, 2011). Therefore, finding a balance between lowering stress levels of

Nurses are especially vulnerable to several related effects of stress, such as burnout, job dissatisfaction, increased interpersonal problems, increased health complaints, disturbances in sleep patterns, as well as clinical depression and anxiety (Villani, Grassi, Cognetta, Toniolo, Cipresso, & Riva, 2013). The potential for stress can be reduced by resolving difficulties in the workplace promptly, addressing staff shortages, turnover and absenteeism, and developing clear objectives and plans (McIntosh, & Sheppy, 2013). Learning to manage and reduce stress by developing insight and coping strategies will help to maintain and promote nursing integrity and consistent patient care (McIntosh, & Sheppy, 2013).

The stress and strain of working in healthcare may become too much to handle. Nurses can react physically and/or mentally to the stress. Cardiac and GI dysfunction, headaches, sleep disturbances are some of the areas that are affected physically. Anxiety, depression and isolation are often seen in nurses that become stressed and strained by their work environment. These symptoms can lead to dissatisfaction, poor performance, increased absenteeism, and high turnover. The overall outcome of this is decrease in quality patient care and increased costs to the employer (Zeller & Levin,