Fatigue in Nursing: Causes & Solutions - Research Paper

Introduction

Fatigue is challenging issue in all professional aspects. Nursing being one of the most demanding professions, nurses more often find themselves suffering from fatigue. Some of the common attributes factors causing fatigue in the nursing field include; shortage of nurses thus the available nurses working overtime to cover for the shortage (Steege & Dykstra, 2016). Characteristically, nurses often find themselves working extra shifts, extended hours and taking on more responsibilities. However, this added pressure on the body and mind results in fatigue which adversely affects nurses. This report will explain the causes of nurse fatigue and how it can be managed to improve the productivity of nurses in the workplace.

Description

Fatigue is generally defined as the feeling of lack of energy and motivation that can be physical, mental or both; Nurses fatigue is caused by nurses working extra shifts and extended working hours. There must be a collaborative effort between the management and workers to help prevent the risk presented by fatigue.

My choice on the topic of Nurses fatigue was because of the consequences manifested by a fatigued nurse can be devastating both to the country and wellbeing of the patients, but what is really at risk when a nurse is a fatigue?

Topic Ideas

Nurses play an essential role in hospitals; a hospital without nurses is as good as dead,

I strongly advocate for coordination of both the employer and his employees (nurses) to the extent that an employer can be able to track every nurse performance to find out the problem and caution action that may lead to preventable errors hence risking patients' lives and health, I try to look on the topic of Nurse fatigue in this short example if a nurse is working for eight hours a day, but on a specific day the nurse is overloaded with work and ends up working for 13 hours without rest. The nurse is likely to give the wrong prescription to a patient or even mishandle a patient in one way or the other. I have a concern on ways that nurses may air their grievance to the employer without being mistaken from laziness and not having passion in his/her career (Needleman, 2015).

Before the research, I had some assumption about the topic of nurse fatigue which some have been proven wrong from this research:

I assumed that nurses working long hours is due to their greed in getting a lot of money from the overtime payment but, but after carrying out a thorough research I have found out nurses are pressured to work for long hours and to have many shifts to meet hospitals requirement as there is a shortage of nurses all through the country.

The research enlightened me in that working for many hours which may lead to many risks to the extent of endangering someone's life.

Significance

This topic bears great importance to the career of a nurse. Nurses play a crucial role in the health sector. Still, the threat of work overload to someone may lead to fatigue, it's a real challenge towards the work performance of a nurse in a hospital the reality is that a nurse can experience fatigue of their minds, bodies and spirits (Han & Geiger-Brown, 2014).

Communication between the employer and the employee is critical as this result in proper planning and may reduce the workload on a nurse.

This topic can be used to prevent some dangers caused by being fatigue as this may result in:

Patient and nurses safety decrease as a result of increased errors and injuries due to exhaustion: nurses are expected to provide highest quality care possible, but this is overturned by a nurse feeling fatigued working long shifts and rotating, as well as voluntary overtime this results in accidents, mistakes and errors. Still, beyond the safety and ethical implications, fatigue can also lead to legal consequences, including loss of license. Although nurses are accountable for their practice, employers also have the responsibility to keep nurses, patients the facility, and the public safe.

Nursing fatigue costs countries a considerable sum of money every year: mental exhaustion can lead to mistakes, and when those mistakes affect the wellbeing of patients.

The employer often shifts the blame of non-performance to the workers. Still, this research will advocate for the culture of recognizing man is to error, and too much work without rest may result in poor performance hence increases more mistakes.

Application to the Practice

Nursing as a profession has its fair share of challenges as any other profession, and nurses tend to experience depression in their daily lives without discussing the leading cause of their depression (Steege & Pinekenstein, 2016). From this research I have acquired some knowledge that will help me all through my career, they include:

• As we want to do the best job to the best of our ability, the environment we work in is the one that will bring the best out of us, the choice of your workplace may impact negatively or positively to your profession.
• Accidents tend to happen, but they should not be a routine. Hence, fatigue leads to more errors, and this can be avoided by communicating and initiating best practices. This is aimed at improving someone's productivity to his work.
• Communication is vital, effective communication between the management and workers may result to everyone being informed and involved in the culture of safety and employee are more likely to be engaged in the results if they feel they are being pressured.

As a trained nurse, I will need to plan some strategies if they find me in any of this situation (Caruso et al, 2017). They include:

• Advocating for developing a fatigue management plan by the employer
• Designing schedules and organizing work to reduce nurse fatigue.
• Communicating with the management for better working terms if the terms are not well structured.

Conclusion

Within the healthcare setting, delivery of quality healthcare services is pertinent. Shortage of nurses and increased demand for their services has presented fatigue has one of the main challenges which needs to be addressed. Fatigue has impaired provision of quality healthcare mostly encroaching critical and analytical thinking of nurses. Overtime measures to address fatigue in nursing profession are central to provision of quality healthcare services. Firstly, short coordinated working shifts (Martin, 2015). Finally, nurses should be advised to avoid overtime schedules related to nursing.

References

Caruso, C. C., Baldwin, C. M., Berger, A., Chasens, E. R., Landis, C., Redeker, N. S, & Trinkoff, A. (2017). Position statement: Reducing fatigue associated with sleep deficiency and work hours in nurses. Nursing outlook, 65(6), 766-768.

Han, K., Trinkoff, A. M., & Geiger-Brown, J. (2014). Factors associated with work-related fatigue and recovery in hospital nurses working 12-hour shifts. Workplace health & safety, 62(10), 409-414.

Martin, D. M. (2015). Nurse fatigue and shift length: A pilot study. Nursing Economics, 33(2), 81.Needleman, J. (2015). Nurse staffing: the knowns and unknowns. Nurs Econ, 33(1), 5-7.

Steege, L. M., & Dykstra, J. G. (2016). A macroergonomic perspective on fatigue and coping in the hospital nurse work system. Applied ergonomics, 54, 19-26.

Steege, L. M., & Pinekenstein, B. (2016). Addressing occupational fatigue in nurses: a risk management model for nurse executives. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 46(4), 193-200.