How Can We Stop Nursing Burnout?
Nursing burnout impacts thousands of nurses every year. Signs include disconnection from patients, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, flagging enthusiasm,聽taking聽frequent sick聽days聽and loss of confidence.聽Employers can help stop nursing burnout聽by taking steps such as聽involving nurses in decision-making, establishing support systems and offering trustworthy, accessible leadership.
Nurses can practice self-care by taking time away from work, getting regular exercise, maintaining a well-balanced diet and getting adequate rest. But nursing burnout is difficult to manage alone. Systematic change is needed.
In addition to the mental and physical toll on nurses, burnout is expensive, as well. A report from the聽聽made a 鈥渃onservative鈥� estimate that annual healthcare industry losses caused by nursing burnout amount to $4.6 billion. This includes loss of clinical hours and increased employee turnover.
Anyone in a聽nursing degree program聽should understand that nursing burnout is a real issue and something all nurses must try to safeguard against. To understand how to stop nursing burnout, it鈥檚 important to understand the inherent aspects of the job that make burnout such a risk.
What Is Nursing Burnout?
Nursing burnout is considered one of the top聽challenges of nursing. The recent聽聽found 15.6 percent of all nurses surveyed reported feelings of burnout. A much larger number 鈥� 41 percent 鈥� of 鈥渦nengaged鈥� nurses experienced feelings of burnout.
PRC defined nurses as unengaged when they do the bare minimum on the job, feel 鈥渁mbivalent鈥� about whether their hospital succeeds, and聽find few rewards in their work.聽Overall, 14.4 percent of nurses felt unengaged. However, among Millennial generation聽nurses, that number rose to 17.1 percent.
Others have reported higher burnout numbers. A study by the National Academy of Medicine, as reported in the聽, found that almost half of all doctors and nurses in the United States experienced symptoms of burnout.
Nurses are at greater risk of burnout聽than other professions because of a large workload, high levels of stress and the chaos they often work in, particularly in emergency departments. They聽also have frequent, often highly emotional,聽contact with patients and their families.
To assess the prevalence of burnout, PRC developed a 鈥渂urnout assessment鈥� that centered around three main questions. They asked nurses if they felt:
- Emotional exhaustion
- Disconnection from patients
- Lack of confidence in their ability to overcome the challenges of their work
The National Academy of Medicine also said feelings of cynicism are common, as well as a lack of all enthusiasm or joy for work. And these feelings can happen quickly. Writing for the鈥犅爊urse Maureen Shawn Kennedy described her experience of burnout in a hospital鈥檚 emergency department this way: 鈥淚 loved it until I didn鈥檛.鈥�
What Are The Signs of Nurse Burnout?
Kennedy wrote that many issues led to her nursing burnout. They included budget cuts, hiring freezes, the departure of experienced colleagues who were not replaced, night shift rotations happening more frequently and working double shifts to cover for insufficient staff.
Those were causes for her burnout. The signs of聽her聽burnout included bickering with other nurses 鈥渙ver scheduling, restocking supplies, or who we were paired to work with.鈥� Kennedy 鈥渟topped treating patients as real people and saw them as assignments to get through on a shift. It was time for me to leave.鈥�
PRC鈥檚 report聽described聽similar burnout signs: looking for a shift to end, always focused on the next break, calling off during times of stress and feeling as if a patient is less a person and more a task.
Ways To Stop Nurse Burnout
As pointed out by clinicians and other experts interviewed in the Washington Post, there鈥檚 only so much an individual can do to stop nursing burnout on their own. Yoga, taking days off away from the hospital, consistent physical exercise, and healthy diet all can help.
But the real solution is systematic change. The PRC report found that nurses feel more engaged and experience聽less聽burnout when hospitals create an environment that聽emphasizes聽three key areas:
- Making nurses active participants in patient care and having leadership that values their opinion
- Creating supportive nursing teams in which all members are respected
- Offering trustworthy leadership, which lessens nurses鈥� stress and chances of burnout, especially if leaders are accessible and responsive to their needs
Kennedy voiced similar sentiments, writing that 鈥渨e need to be fiscally responsible, but nurses鈥� main priority shouldn鈥檛 be patient throughput or implementing changes that save money while compromising care and patient outcomes. Nurses must be enabled to nurse.鈥�