Nurse Burnout Related To Pain Management In Children

1. Summary / Background

 The growth of the nursing field in the past several decades has seen many students following their educational dream of working with physicians, patients and medical staff. However, their realization of how the field is difficult is not so advertised as the satisfaction and rewards facets from medical care and especially the patients (Fisher, 2016). However, by understanding the emotional and physical stress which comes with the practice of nursing, is imperative to those that are in the field so as to combat the build-up factors which may cause the nurse burnout phenomenon that incites what is mostly termed as the impairment in nursing abilities especially when dealing with the management of pain in children (Berkowitz, 2016).  There are many incidences of nurse burnout which is in fact, an impairment both to the nurse and those working with the impaired nurse as it will have an overall negative impact on the entirety of the nurse practices in the pain management of children or any other surrounding environment which they are required to work under. 

Nurse burnout is the long term response to any type of physical, interpersonal, chronic and emotional stress on the job. Mostly there are three specific dimensions that are looked at in pain management of children which includes depersonalization, reduced personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion (Anon, 2015).   The first one is a suggestion of the cynical attitude, or the negative feelings towards child patients or other recipients of care. The reduction of individual accomplishment which looks at negatively evaluating individual’s work and the emotional exhaustion that comes with it which can also be termed as  the feeling one gets of being emotionally drained because of the continued contact with the child patient and other care providers or caregivers.

1.2. Significance of the Problem

Nurse burnout is often considered as an occupational hazard, the problem has continued to increase in nurses because of the rising cost of healthcare, the increased use of technology in provision of care and due to the increased amount of regulation for the patient care. In this manner, some changes and the increases form a part of the causation for the stress within the field of the nursing especially those that deal with children who are not able to express themselves as adults.  The field thus attracts a lot of interest in studying where most experts now suggest that one of five nurse working with children will suffer burnout within the first year of their work, the challenge is even higher for those nurses that work in a paediatric ward setting.

Looking at the suggestion from those who have worked in the field of nursing discussing at where the child environment is among the main factors and causes for burnout on the nurse as well. In order to continue determining the preventative and intervention methods that can be used to end nurse burnout during pain management of children (Pantrini, 2016). Experts have in this line considered the type of environment that cause the most stress for the nurses. This is because nurses need to cover different shifts, they are also more prone to the issue of burnout due to the lack of enough staffing for nurses working in the paediatric wards that has also led to a longer need for the coverage shift to take care of the shortages.     

1.3 Current Practices related to Nurses Burnout and management of Pain

For nurses to be able to combat burnout during management of pain among paediatrics, there are many educational avenues like universities and colleges which the nurse will undertake a course to prepare them on methods that the can use in recognition, prevention and treatment of burnout symptoms well before the issue has become very serious or one that will affect the way they treat and care for children in a paediatric setting. For one to do so, there are several diverse methods of education which is continually introduced  like have educators work with the healthcare facility to  continue on the said educational endeavour for those nurses that are already working  in the pain management department (Rushton, Batcheller, Schroeder, & Donohue, 2015). Various healthcare facilities will also provide and expect to ensure that there is a continued education for the mental health and wellbeing of the nurse in charge of children even as they continue to advance in their careers and continue to work well beyond after graduation and their college years.

The preventative and intervention measures that are used for burnout among nurses working with children has at times failed because of lack of support from leaders in the nursing industry. The intervention and prevent