Nursing Burnout: A Concept Analysis

 

 Nurses have a load they are carrying on their shoulders when caring for patients in any environment. “Nursing staff have certain professional expectations and inclinations that make them susceptible to suffering burnout” (Manzano-Garcia & Ayala, 2017). With nurses being the forefront of healthcare, burnout is so high within this profession. A concept analysis is an approved language used to explain certain defining attributes. Concept analysis can be used in the nursing profession to test theories and develop new theories in different concepts and aspects seen throughout different practices. Burnout needs to be looked at closer in the field of nursing. Nurses become exhausted emotionally, physically, and mentally with long work hours, inability to take proper breaks, short staffing, and no appreciation which causes nurses to leave the profession. The importance of examining nurse burnout in a concept analysis cannot be overstated. This paper will define and explain what nurse burnout is while providing literature reviews, one antecedent with a one consequence, two empirical referents on how to measure burnout, applying the application of theory using the conservation of resources theory, then closing with a conclusion.

Definition and explanation of nursing concept

The definition of burnout from the Merriam Webster dictionary says, “an exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration” (Burnout, n.d.). Burnout is nothing new and is continuing to grow in the nursing profession. Burnout can lead to many issues with nurses and nurse practitioners alike. Among many examples of burnout, Raferty & Poole (2015) found compassion fatigue, physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, stress, decrease in personal goals, poor physical and mental health, self-conscious about job performance, broken relationships, decrease in productivity, increased call-ins are among the mix. Burnout is believed to be more common in healthcare because of the high stress levels involved with their job, performance, and work environment (p. 653). Nurses have the responsibility of many different types of patients. They give so much of themselves, physically, emotionally, and mentally, to properly care for patients, which leads to nurse burnout. There are many names for nursing burnout, but all lead to the same problem where nurses become overwhelmed with the duties needed to complete their shift. Burnout is not limited to just nurses; it can affect anyone working in a high-stress work environment. Burnout happens when personal achievements are not completed, and job discomfort increases causing a decline in effort and overall health. The affects happen gradually over time. The very things that brought one to nursing, such as passion and enthusiasm, are taken over by thoughts of frustration and feeling unappreciated which they never had before deciding to become a nurse.

Literature Review

All the literature I read for nurse burnout showed how large a problem, it is and how and why it needs be prevented. Burnout is individualized causing long effects on nurses, environments and patient safety and outcomes. Call-offs leave nurses short staffed leading to more errors and less time for each patient leading to burnout. The literature showed that physical, mental and emotional fatigue, stressful work environment, anticipated failures and job discomfort are directly related to burnout (Filgueira Martins Rodrigues, Pereira Santos & Sousa, 2017). Nurses working short staffed, long hours and mandated overtime give their time and energy to patient care which leads to burnout over a period of time.

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Job related stress controls how one sees themselves and control their temper and attitude. With burnout being a result of continued high stress levels at work, the literature also supports this type of levels can lead to decrease in good health and increase the development of a disease (Savagioni et al., 2017). Increased levels of stress and inability to reach personal goals can lead to different consequences such as negativity among and towards workers, attitudes, and undesirable patient satisfaction scores. 

Literature states burnout can happen to anyone, anywhere and anytime while working in a stressful environment. “Growing evidence has accumulated in the past decades that burnout is a widespread phenomenon among health professionals with adverse consequences on individual health, organizational functioning, quality of care, and patient outcome” (Heeb and Haberey-Knuessi,

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