The Stress of Caring

Providing the best care to each patient starts with providing the proper amount of staff members to each unit. Looking at the needs of different units not only allows administration to see areas for improvement, but also areas that are being handled correctly. Utilizing the indicators provided by The Joint Commission, 4 East, a pediatric medical/surgical floor, has a high rate of falls and nosocomial pressure ulcers that appears to be related to the increase overtime nurses have been working for that floor (Nightingale, 2010). Research has shown increases in adverse events have been related to nurses working over 40 hours a week (Bae, 2012).

Nurse managers should consider patient needs, level of education, expertise and work satisfaction before dictating the number of nurses-to-patient ration (Murray, 2017). Reported by Martin (2015), the risk of mortality can be decreased by 50%. Starting with the nurses, a large amount of workload can bring fatigue, inadequate sleep, employment and increase in calls-out which leaves nurse managers to make changes to assignments. This takes times out of the resource nurse shift to focus on redistributing patient, in turn, causes a delay in starting their plan of care. As an aide, there have been times at Meritus where a nurse calls out and the resource nurse at least spends an hour with the outgoing nurse communicating with the staffing office to ask for a float pool nurse. On the other hand, outcomes such as “pneumonia, shock, cardiac arrest, and urinary tract infections are directly related to low nurse staffing” (Martin, 2015). On the stroke medical-surgical unit, sometimes there is one aide for 28 patients. Some of these patients need turning every two hours, incontinent or bedrest, but it is difficult to attend to all of them on an hourly rounding base and provide adequate care to each of them. At one point, a new graduate nurse was given seven patients to care for. According to Meritus nurse residency program, new grads can have up to six patients on a medical-surgical floor. One can only imagine how overwhelming that can be for a new nurse. To help prevent these poor outcomes from occurring, strategies to improve nurse staffing can be utilized by

Implementing change can evoke stress, and nurses are not immune to this stress brought on by change, or this stress might be amplified due to the fact that nurses are usually at the forefront of change. Any change that is initiated in the healthcare industry will impact how nurse perform their duty, and can negatively can affect their workflow if extra precaution is not taken. Thus, nurses are a major force in resistance to

In the facility where Shirley was located, the facility had failed to meet its own staffing standards for 51 of 59 days, a staffing supervisor stated that administration had warned against the cost of augmenting the number of nurses scheduled, in addition, a staff nurse produced documents providing evidence that employees had shared their concerns that short staffing was having a deleterious effect on patient safety (Curtain, 2011). Given the preceding information, it is clear the hospital was not listening to the distress regarding staffing. There is substantial data illustrating that staffing has a direct impact on patient morbidity and mortality (Aiken, Clarke, Sloan, Sochalski, &

These were my sixth (10/15) and seventh (10/16) night shifts following Meagan on the medical/surgical floor at Rady Children’s Hospital. On Thursday, the floor was full with 39 patients and we were unable to accept any more patients. Since it was so busy, Meagan and I stayed at the front of the floor where no one else was sitting to prevent distractions so that we could complete our assessments and charting in a timely fashion. Many patients were discharged during the day on Friday, so there were significantly less patients for my second shift on Friday night. However, it was still busy with 4 admits right at the beginning of shift, 12 nurses, and a total of 35 patients by the end of the shift.

As the healthcare system is evolving and becoming more advanced and demanding, nurses, especially registered nurses(RNs), are threatened by the increased job demands and other stress-related factors that negatively affect their performance. Furthermore, advances in technology along with the nursing shortage and the retirement of baby boomers have put a strain on healthcare organizations which in turn has greatly increased the work demands leading to unhealthy working environments (Othman & Nasurdin, 2013; Van Bogaert, Wouters, Willems, Mondelaers, & Clarke, 2013). An unhealthy nurse practice environment in which there is no or little support to overcome different challenges that may arise from the job affect nurses’ capacity to be more engaged

Every profession has its rules, beliefs, theories, and principles. This aforementioned are the podium upon which the value and philosophies of the success of each profession is based. These philosophies and values do not operate in a vacuum. They influence the way which professionals carry out their day to day activities for maximum success. Consequently, Nursing and Nurses are not immune to the great influence of values and philosophies, be it at personal or corporate levels. This is because, nursing as a profession deals with the constant interaction with patients; therapeutically providing quality, cost-effective care, promoting health and wellness, they are constantly guided and influenced by their personal and nursing philosophies in

Another outcome of healing center rebuilding regularly is that lesser-prepared or untrained staff supplant enrolled medical caretakers, bringing about extra weight on those staying in the workforce . With less qualified staff accessible to tend to patients, higher patient sharpness and shorter length of stay fundamentally expand nursing workloads, which has been appeared to bring about more unfavorable patient results , and large amounts of truancy among medical caretakers, with rates a few times more prominent after a noteworthy rather than minor scaling down . The negative impacts of rebuilding on patient care and attendants' working conditions now are generally acknowledged.

Besides these, healthcare organizations take advantage of hiring less experienced nurses as they can pay them low salaries, which can lead to the weaker nursing team as they are not skilled enough to take different roles (Moss&Good, 2016). Similarly, hiring nurses on a casual basis or short-term contracts is another strategy of saving money by the companies that leads to low-quality care services as the employees do not feel that they belong to the company and may not work their best. The lacking of adequate supplies and appropriate equipment provided by the healthcare organization creates more work and pressure for nurses and do not allow them to present their best care quality. Low staffing, extra workload and emotional exhaustion faced by nurses have developed extreme frustration and guilt among them (Moss&Good, 2016). The burnt out and tired nurses don’t feel appreciated and take too many sick days which makes the situation even worse. It seems changing the system is hard and the management cannot recognize that something isn’t working well because of not all the nurses willing to speak up about the failure of the system. They are in fear of losing their job or do not feel supported enough by their nursing

The provision of care for seniors requires a combination of experience, efficiency and ethicality. While Emeritus Senior Living speaks of these features in its company Mission and its statement of Values, the discussion conducted hereafter will demonstrate that the company's fast rate of growth has impeded its ability to impose the proper controls over these features. As a result, the company has fallen short of its goals in the areas of Mission, Vision and Value, especially as demonstrated by the Environmental Scan conducted in this investigation. This describes a company which is the top provider of senior care in the United States and which, as a result, has earned a positive reputation in the areas of quality, experience and accessibility. This reputation is allowing Emeritus to expand into foreign markets such as Canada and China, the discussion hereafter indicates.

With the Health care reform being the main focus right now regulatory initiatives regarding the patient to staff ratios are weighing heavily on the nursing workforce (Buerhaus, et al, 2009). In changing the ratios it has a great potential to change the organization and delivery of nursing care. Adequate staffing levels have shown to reduce medication errors, complaints, and mortality, improve patient satisfaction, reduce nurse fatigue and improve nurse satisfaction (Arkin et al, 2014). Staffing shortages have led to nurses moving from hospital-based organizations to outpatient clinics due to the heavy

Surprisingly, Woodholme was not always challenged as it is today. One strength, Woodholme has is their experienced and passionate caregivers. The caregivers at Woodholme maintain the dignity and respect of their residents and treat them as if they were their own. Despite all the changes, there are employees who have been at Woodholme since its opened its doors in 2010, that shows loyalty. Woodholme has all the potential to place themselves as the number one Assisted Living in Pikesville, they just need the right people to turn it around and they are doing just that. As new management gets settled in, they will start reinforcing rules and policies to get there building on the right

Changes arising in the healthcare environment such as advances in technology, the retirement of the aging nurses, economic trends and projected nursing shortages threaten organizations’ outcomes in terms of quality, patient safety, and productivity. Studies revealed that increased work demands lead to stressful working environments resulting in medical error, job dissatisfaction, poor performance, low levels of work engagement, and increased turnover rates which can dramatically impact patient safety and outcomes (Wong & Laschinger, 2012). The healthcare environment is becoming more challenging leading to stress and inability to cope with job pressures and demands; this can lead to detrimental consequences such dissatisfaction, job quitting

With competition popping around every corner and nursing homes becoming a great focus for business people who want to make a shiny penny it is vital that our facilities become the community’s choice in elderly care. To do this I have created a quality improvement initiative that will not only makes us the organization of choice but will also help cut costs and increase the organization’s profitability. The initiative is comprised of multiple components including: lower staff turnover; consistent care for patients; reduced hospitalizations; managing infections; and using medication appropriately. Each of these components will help to reduce costs therefore increase profitability.

The work environment at a large community hospital is unfavorable. Recent change in senior management is producing much anxiety and uncertainty among the nursing staff. Nursing staff perceives they are required to work with limited resources. For the past two years, wages and benefits have not increased for the nursing staff. Presently, there is a national nursing shortage. As a result, the nurses feel overworked and underpaid. Also, their work efforts go unappreciated and unrecognized.