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Essay / The Accountability Check: Burnout in Nursing
Table of ContentsAccountability and BurnoutFactors That Worsen BurnoutHow to Relieve BurnoutNursing is a profession that relies on critical thinking, basic knowledge and relief of patient pain and suffering (Stacey, Singh-Carlson, Odell, Reynolds, & Yuhua, 2016). The ANA Scope and Standards of Practice recommend that nurses have “an ethical responsibility to report to work…prepared to provide safe, quality patient care” (ANA, 2015). Although nurses are guided by a code of ethics, their job is to advocate for patients, communicate and educate. With autonomy comes an increased level of responsibility that can lead to burnout, feelings of “hopelessness,” and an “inability to do [their] job well” (Hunsaker, Chen, Maughan, & Heaston , 2015). Burnout affects professional responsibility because if a nurse does not have the right mindset, they cannot adequately perform their duties. The purpose of this article is to highlight the high-stress work environment that can often lead to greater susceptibility to errors, decreased job performance, and compassion fatigue due to adverse environmental pressures (Bamonti et al. , 2019).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayResponsibility and BurnoutBurnout was first coined by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger who noted evidence of burnout psychological caused by environmental stressors (Hunsaker, et al., 2015). . Burnout is a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion that is defined in three stages: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishment (Bamonti et al., 2017). These stages affect the nursing profession due to the level of emotional control required from nurses (Bamonti et al., 2017). The results of Bamonti et al. (2017) indicate that long-term care facilities experience high levels of turnover due to symptoms of emotional distress caused by burnout. Specifically, dysfunctional coping mechanisms, such as emotion-focused coping, are correlated with increased levels of burnout resulting from unhealthy suppression of emotions. Conversely, problem-focused coping aims to resolve the problem causing the complications and has been found to have an inverse relationship with burnout (Bamonti, et al., 2017). Since nurses care for a multitude of people at the same time, compassion fatigue can also have negative consequences in the workplace. The distinction between burnout and compassion fatigue is that burnout is caused by the environment, while compassion fatigue is caused by indirect emotional exhaustion from witnessing pain from others (Bamonti, et al., 2017). For example, a study focused on oncology nurses found that while establishing a close relationship with a patient is essential to knowing the patient, when traumatic events occur, such as death, there is a risk increased professional burnout due to the personal connections that are forged. (Stacey et al., 2016). Factors aggravating burnout Environmental determinants that increase the risk of burnout include.., 2019).