NURS 6053 Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Nurse Burnout Essay Assignment NURS 6053 Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Nurse Burnout Essay Assignment

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices on Mental health stigmatization

 The U.S. healthcare system has improved over the years. Technology has dramatically helped improve healthcare systems in many ways. However, the quality of care delivered to patients is still largely dependent on the ability of healthcare professionals to provide adequate care by employing critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and evidence-based approaches. Therefore, when healthcare workers are overwhelmed by the increased workload, increased hours, and mandatory overtime, the ability to provide safe care is depreciated and leads to nurse burnout and a potential danger to patients (Cuff & Forstrag 2019). Burnout among healthcare professionals is now recognized as a problem by many in the healthcare system, hence the addition of a fourth agenda to the “Triple Aim,” which promotes the positive mental health of healthcare providers in the work environment (Fitzpatrick, Bloore, & Blake 2019) NURS 6053 Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Nurse Burnout Essay Assignment. However, not enough research has been done to find evidence-based solutions to address the problem. The lack of sufficient healthcare personnel including nurses, physicians, and other caregivers, as well as the increased workload, hours, and physical, emotional and psychological demands has placed a significant burden on the sparsely available healthcare professionals left caring for a growing number of patients (Costa & Moss, 2018). This paper aims to address the issue of burnout in healthcare systems, identify the competing needs impacting burnout, and evaluate policies that influence staffing and prevent burnout

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Competing Needs Impacting Nurse Burnout

One approach by which healthcare organizations can address burnout is by creating policies that support work-life balance of their staff, promote job satisfaction, improve staffing, and increase nurse retention. However, competing needs and limited resources can potentially create a substantial barrier to implementing any effective policies in decreasing nurse burnout. One of these competing needs is cost. The cost of healthcare delivery for both human and material resources in the United States is a major hindrance to addressing the issue of burnout among healthcare workers and is a major factor contributing to the common practice of understaffing healthcare facilities across the nation (Costa & Moss, 2018). The perceived cost of implementing policies such as mental health time off, appropriate staffing ratios, and employee compensation and appreciation may prevent some organizations from implementing these policies. Therefore, policy proponents need to educate stakeholders on using a cost-benefit analysis of how the implementation of these policies affect cost and revenue in relation to how burnout and high turnover rates also affect cost and revenue. According to Rivas (2018), the estimated cost of nurse burnout related turnover is $14 billion in the U.S. this is money that can be spent in improving the health care delivery system.

The nursing shortage is another competing need that may restrict institutional efforts to address nurse burnout. The introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has provided millions of Americans with access to healthcare, thus increasing the number of Americans seeking care (Glied, Ma, & Borja, 2017). There has also been an increase in the average life expectancy in the U.S., leaving a growing aged population with chronic conditions needing care (World Health Organization (2020). These are some of the factors that have created a gap between the number of patients needing care and the number of healthcare professionals available to care for them, thus enhancing the nursing shortage. The lack of a standardized staffing ratio is detrimental to the health care system because it leaves organizations to decide policies regarding nurse-patient ratios (Blitchok, 2018).  Unbalanced staffing ratios increase nurse burnout, which further worsens the unsafe staffing ratios by increasing turnover rates and absenteeism devolving into a repetitive toxic cycle. Organizations in these cycles may want to implement policies to address understaffing but find it difficult due to the shortage of nurses to replace nurses who quit or retire.

Policy influencing Nurse Burnout in my Organization

The organization where I work has policies in place to help address nurse burnout. An example of such a policy includes a mandatory break with other nurses as “buddies” to help cover a nurse’s as