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Nursing Burnout

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Submitted By rmister
Words 3944
Pages 16
Quality Improvement Project
By
RM
January 2016

Leadership and Management

Executive Summary

Nursing burnout is serious and in order to ensure that nurses are taken care of, the administration must implement incentives and policies that will provide nurses with the resources to maintain a healthy work life balance. Burnout accounts for many of the medication errors and patient injuries in healthcare facilities. Most nurses are overwhelmed because of the caseload and longer workdays necessary to complete charting. Many nurses are also disgruntled because of denied vacation requests that cannot be approved because of non-coverage. Research has shown that when employees are happy then there are less errors and injuries in the workplace. It’s ironic that nurses care for patients but they don’t feel as though the healthcare facility cares for them. Many things can be done to boost employee morale which in turn will increase the quality of care that the patients receive. Adequate coverage needs to be address and using temporary staffing is a way to fill chronic vacant positions so that float RN’s are available for PTO requests. Insurance credits and consumer discounts can be used as incentives for those employees that practice healthy living activities. Staff meetings held during work hours, discussion boxes, timeout rooms, and partnerships with massage clinics are all changes that can provide stress relief for nurses. These changes are not too costly for the facility, and in the end, will result in less money spent on errors and injuries. The issues and changes must be discussed with a representative at each level (nurse, manager, supervisor, and budget analyzer). Technical changes encounter less resistance than social changes. Employees should be allowed to voice their concerns and opinions anonymously, written, or verbally. Information

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