Stress and Burnout Lead to Bullying in Nursing Essay Example

Stress is the way in which a human body responds to any kind of threat or demand for a particular item, task, need, and desire within a given time or season. When a person is faced with or senses any kind of danger or challenge, which is seemingly beyond his or her power of control or ability to overcome (might be real or imagined), the body tends to fight back or kick in a high level of gear to respond quickly or rapidly in automatic process of fight. Stress is also a psychological feeling which affects the mental being of human and has diverse effects to any kind of operations of people (Bahrer-Kohler, 2012). It can be temporary or permanent.

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On the other hand, burnout is an emotional and physical fatigue or exhaustion due to working in an environment with people under difficult or complex demanding conditions. It is related to quickness to anger, fevers, chronic fatigue, and headaches. Burnout is associated with mental health problems or impairments in a workplace context. However, there is still no whole agreement on the definition of this phenomenon. Burnout can also be defined in three aspects, all of which are bound to the work-related environment. These components include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of or inadequate personal accomplishment (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996).

Emotional exhaustion is defined as a state or condition of feeling, which is emotionally overstretched by the nature of the work and depersonalization defined as self-interest or cynical attitude towards work or in a work setting. Lack of personal accomplishment is a state of being disappointed and discouraged, which leads to a feeling of being incompetent, inadequate, and inefficient in the daily activities or tasks in the job.

The rate of these associated signs, state, and conditions of stress and burnout in their effects on workplaces is drawing more attention in the medical field, particularly on medical practitioners like nurses. Burnout in medical field emerges as a result of stress due to the social relationship between two people. This aspect is often in the context of one being the giver and the other being receiver. In the medical field where nurses and patients are involved, the victim is commonly the nurse being the giver whereas the patient becomes the receiver. Nurses are prone to stress, which results from the high demands of the patients, and due to the continued demands and needs of the patients, the nurses become highly probable to develop burnouts.

According to Bahrer-Kohler (2012), stress and burnout are the most frequent things that are affecting the minds of the people in their daily activities. Stress is developed mostly and at an increasing rate by the employees due to their high expectations and demand to deliver results at work.

In the context of the medical field, stress and burnout have resulted in bullying, and nurses are categorized to be the most affected. Bullying is an influence to intimidate a person by forcing him or her to do something without minding the state of that person. Nurses have been prone to bullying both from the fellow nursing team and patients. Also, patients, in turn, tend to be faced with bullying from nurses due to stress and burnout of the nurses. It is, therefore, the backlog of the work that leads to overworking of the nurses in the medical set up with a lot of demand and high expectations, both from the employer and clients, and the set of rules have led to burnout which has been referred as bullying aspect.

According to Todaro-Franceschiits (2012) main point on stress and burnout is that many people misunderstand burnout to be laziness, mental illness, instability, and incompetence. However, burnout is as a result of stress, and consequently, the continued conditions of this burnout lead to bullying. Research shows that the nursing professionals are the most affected by burnout, which has led them to have psychological effects like depression, risk suicide, and substance abuse.

Cause of Stress and Burnout in Nursing

Nursing is defined as the application of clinical judgment in providing the health care for people to improve, maintain their health or recover from health concerns. The objective is to help patients to cope up with the challenges related to their health, and the aim is to gain the best quality of care until death (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996).

The responsibilities and tasks of the nurses today cover a wide range of aspects from the accounting, the cultural, spiritual, emotional, physical, and the improved aspects of the clients as well as the patients and customers of a health institution. Also, the nurse is mandated to provide information and knowledge, which are important and necessary for the wellbeing of the patients. A nurse also champions the rights of the patients and engaged in lawful decisions, which will eventually have an impact on the patients handling and welfare. The other responsibility of a nurse is to be a link between the patient and the family, and to makes sure that the delivery of the effective healthy communication to aid to support the healing process of the patient. A nurse is both the manager and the decision maker (Todaro-Franceschiits, 2012). These many responsibilities and tasks are interlinked to each other and delivered as a package to the patient at the same time since they help in the healing process of the patient. This nature of work makes the nurse multitask and, therefore, the result makes the profession demanding and complex, which might lead to stress and burnout of the nurse (Todaro-Franceschi, 2012). A nurse also being a health worker is faced with many challenges, which are mostly psychological stresses. Such conditions are the common elements in the nursing and thereby exposing them to the risk of burnout syndrome. The consequences include the effects on the quality and standards of services in the hospitals, as well as the safety of the clients.

Stress and burnout in nursing or in health sector work setup have been considered as a high level of risks for nurses' health and safety. This is due to working conditions. Moreover, the expectations for hospitals have been increasing, calling for the need for high demands and the work, therefore, becomes stressful (Freudenberger, 1974). Nursing can be stressful because a nurse must respond to the need of patients and families in a swift manner without acknowledging the state of his or her own wellbeing. Any errors or mistakes caused by nurses are harmful and costly to the patients and in most cases are irreversible. Also, the nature of the work calls for long working hours, which leads to working on a shift basis, and this results in a lot of stress and burnout among nurses. Eventually, there is no balance of work with their private work.

Preventing Stress and Burnout in Nursing

The effects of stress and burnout leading to bullying are far much reaching. Stress and burnout are associated with poor quality of care and diminishing patient satisfaction and have a long-term negative effect on the attitude towards the profession, and turnover and impact in training the next generation (Freudenberger, 1974). There are some of the recommendations put in place to prevent stress and burn out, and also to reduce or eliminate bullying. These are:

Acknowledging and Assessing the Problem

Bullying in the health sector should be accepted or acknowledged to be a major problem in nursing due to stress and burnout encountered by nurses. A survey should be carried out on all the nursing fraternity to assess the extent of effects or level of stress and burnout at the workplace. This gathering of information is vital in addressing the specific issues and concerns of health workers. The issues to be assessed include the shift mode of nurses, the environment, and the welfare of the nurses among others.

Cultivating Community at Work

Appreciating and recognizing the significance of the peer interaction in the workplace is crucial in reducing and preventing the stress and burnout. This culture will build a community bond among the nursing family and realize that they are mindful of each other's physical and emotional needs. It creates an environment where the nursing fraternities are able to share their challenges and work as a team to overcome the challenges in the workplace. This step eliminates bullying caused by stress and as result improves the quality of service delivery in the sector.

Using Rewards and Incentives Wisely

Financial incentives have been commonly used as motivational tools, although it has not been effective. Using alternatives rewards, which the employees/nurses are beneficiaries will help to keep them and remind them that their work is being appreciated. It is evident that there is power in employing these rewards and incentives such as flexibility of time in pursuing important aspects of work to raise the fulfillment for nurses.

Providing Resources to Promote Resilience and Self-care

These are measures employed to improve the capacity of nurses in their working environment. They involve investing in the prevention of stress and burnout by applying initiatives, for example, training in skills associated with positive thinking, resilience, and mindfulness to others.

Aligning Values and Strengthening Culture

The nursing fraternity in its mission to improve the health and the well-being of the patient must be aligned with values of caring, learning, and teaching. This should be the working compass of the daily routine in the workplace.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the nurses and nursing fraternity is the most affected by stress and burnout, which has led to bullying. This challenge is noted to be associated with high expectations from patients, clients, and the complex nature of the nursing work. The job of the nurses is straining due to long working hours and much attention to the patient at the expense of their personal life and family. The feasible and rational strategies discussed above can be implemented to reduce stress and burnout eliminating bullying.

References

Bahrer-Kohler, S. (Ed.). (2012). Burnout for experts: Prevention in the context of living and working. Springer Science & Business Media.

Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burnout. Journal of social issues, 30(1), 159-165.Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). MBI: Maslach burnout inventory. Sunnyvale (CA): CPP, Incorporated.

Todaro-Franceschi, V. (2012). Compassion fatigue and burnout in nursing: Enhancing professional quality of life. Springer Publishing Company.