The safety of patients

The safety of patients

The safety of patients is the most crucial element in the delivery of quality health services, and nurses play a critical role in ensuring that it is achieved. Observing patient in the hospitals would help in ensuring that there is reduced morbidity, injuries, disabilities, and even mortality among patients. According to the Mudallal, Othman and Hassan (2017) nurses seem to face higher levels of stress than other professions. This high levels of stress compromise the safety of patients and the quality of healthcare provided. Stress in the workplace among nurses is often brought about by the various strenuous working conditions in which the nurses have to work. Workplace stress among nurses not only impact the physical and emotional well-being of the nurses but also affects their efficiency and the overall quality of their lives (Koinis et al., 2015). In this light, it is prudent for leaders to create a conducive environment that would make it more efficient for the nurses and ensure patient safety. To achieve this plan, nurse leaders must find a balance between the needs of the patients of quality, safe, and effective care, and the needs of the organization. Achieving this objective may require fundamental changes in the entire organization. The changes may involve changing the policies and design of the organizational structure as well as how personnel are deployed to find a balance between the safety of the patients and the needs of the staff and organization as a whole (Keykaleh et al., 2018)

Two competing demands in solving nurse’s stress

Competing demands that lead to the high levels of stress and burnout among nurses include their obligation to provide the best quality care to their patients that may lead to them working for long hours and engaging in excessive work. It is apparent that the primary responsibility of nurses is to make sure that the patients attain the best possible outcome without compromising their safety. Regrettably, the demand to provide attentive care to the patients often come at the expense of the well-being of the nurses. Various organizational requirements also contribute to this stress. For instance, a research carried out among nurses in Michigan indicates that nurses who worked for 12 hours or more in a day reported higher levels of strain and stress than those who worked for fewer hour shifts (Delgado et al., 2017). Spending more time at the hospitals as well as the emotionally demanding conversations with patients add to the afflictions of the nurse within their already chaotic schedules. Despite the obvious detrimental demands, the nurses are still tasked with ensuring that they invest in the well-being of the patients at their own expense. The eventuality may also mean that the nurses lack a social life or time for other relationships.

One of the causes of nurse’s burnout is the lack of adequate personnel to cater to the needs of the patients. According to Boamah and Laschinger (2016), there seems to be an increased turnover rate of nurses in the world and most especially in developing countries. This increased rate of nurses leaving the profession implies that there is an increasing deficit of nurses that compromise the quality of services offered in hospitals. This also increases the likelihood of increased morbidity, mortality, and the spread of infectious diseases. The lack of adequate nurses puts more stress on the nurses as they still have to work longer hours to cover the gap left by the few personnel. The fewer staff also implies that the patients get to spend fewer hours with the nurses who may have to spread their shifts across the many patients in a facility. This means that the nurses forge poor relations with the patients, and the quality of care is also compromised.

Relevant policy practice in the organization

One of the ways of combating nurses’ burnout and stress is by training them on resilience. Therefore, the organization has a program that consists of training the professionals on techniques to deal with cognitive behaviors and increase their resilience in light of the challenges present in the nursing profession. This is a policy practice that is founded on the assertion by Magtibay et al. (2017) that resilience can be developed and strengthened and even taught through training of coping skills.

The main strength of this policy is that it gives the nurses the ability to work for long hours and bounce back from any trauma and adversity while remaining focused on providing high quality care. Besides, the policy also helps in addressing the problem of the shortage of nurses as they can dedicate more time on service to the patients as they cope with the demands of their practice. However, the ethical issue of resilience training is that it ignores other relationships that nurses have. For instance, while a nurse may be able to forge a relationship with the patients, they might lose their social life outside the hospital. Besides, they may also be unable to form meaningful bonds outside their practice. This policy is also in line with Ross‘s theory of ethics that emphasizes the fact that an action is only right based on the fulfilment of one’s promises (Kearns, 2017). In this case, the nurses are obliged to cope with the demands of their jobs as a fulfilment of their obligation to ensure the well-being of their patients. The ethical theory also suggests that duties of beneficence, justice, and self-improvement could be subsumed under the single duty of promoting intrinsically good values.

Policy and practice changes to balance the needs

One policy that might help in addressing the shortage of nurses would be aimed at increasing the number of nurses in the organization to reduce the shifts for the nurses. For instance, the organization may consider outlining incentives that may liaise with a medical school to train more nurses that would work in the organization with the experienced nurses. Increasing the number of nurses would give them less working shifts that allow them to spend more time with their families and building their social lives. The organization may also consider increasing collaborative working relationships and fostering a culture of managerial support.

In conclusion, it is evident that nurse’s burnout not only compromises the health of nurses but the quality and safety of patients that seek care from institutions. Competing needs to addressing the nurses’ burnout are the needs to provide top-notch care to the patients that may lead them to work more hours and facing the possibility of stress. Therefore, there is a need for organizations to come up with policies that would balance the needs of quality care while reducing the pressure on the nurses. This may include having to increase the number of nurses and reducing the shifts in hospitals. By so doing, organizations would be able to address the problem without compromising the safety of patients and quality of care.