NURS 6053 Week 3 Module 2 Assignment Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

NURS 6053 Week 3 Module 2 Assignment

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

Student Name

Walden University

NURS 6053

Professor Name

Date

Developing Organizational Policies and Practices

In healthcare organizations, nurse burnout is a common problem that occurs because of excessive workloads, shortage of staff, and psychological effects of attending to severely ill patients. Burnout exacerbates the care provided to patients, errors, and the turnover. The given assignment explores conflicting needs that result in nurse burnout and an applicable organizational policy. The given assignment suggests a set of resource allocation changes that enhance both the well-being of nurses and patient care through the critical analysis of the ethical implication of this policy and applying evidence-based methods.

Competing Needs

Nurse burnout depends on staffing and working conditions. Workload of nurses is influenced by the number of staff (Griffiths et al., 2020). The causes of burnout include the overworking of employees, the long working hours, and stress levels due to a lack of sufficient staff. In situations where the number of nurses is reduced, each will be required to attend more patients leading to physical and mental stress. The work environment determines nurse burnout. Positive work environment can result in increased job satisfaction and reduced stress through promotion of communication, appreciation and collaboration. On the other hand, a working environment that is hostile with bad management, support, and resources augments burnout. As an illustration, workplace culture that does not support employees and ineffective communication may cause them to experience alienation and underappreciation, increasing the risk of burnout. By balancing such demands, nurse burnout should be considered. 

Policy

Mandatory overtime policy in our organization has significant influence on nurse burnout. This policy requires nurses to work overtime in order to meet patient care and staffing needs. This method does not allow staffing gaps to undermine patient care, yet it puts an extra burden on nurses and leads to burnout. Mandatory overtime can cause nurses to become chronically tired, dissatisfied with their work, and in poor health (Caruso et al., 2022). Work-life balance is affected negatively and it is difficult to balance between family and personal life. Although this policy is aimed at maintaining the quality of patient care, it overloads the staff and leads to burnout in nurses.

Critique for Ethical Considerations

The required overtime regulation is ethically questionable. Unhealthy situations should not be allowed to work as a nurse. The policy can be a violation of autonomy because it limits the work-life balance of nurses. The strength of the policy is on the rapid response to staffing shortages that would guarantee the quality of patient care. It puts more emphasis on patient care than on nurse welfare; however, its implementation can be unethical. 

One of the largest obstacles is the nonmaleficence principle that entails the healthcare organizations avoiding harm (Cheraghi et al., 2023). The organization can also induce fatigue and stress to the nurses by making them work overtime. Another issue is the problem of justice, where fairness is necessary. The policy may have the staff feeling like they are unfairly loaded with overtime requirements.

Recommendation for Policy

The ethical concerns of the overtime policy required can be overcome by the flexibility of scheduling and the resources of nurse support to balance the needs of resources, workers, and patients. Flexible scheduling would allow nurses to choose flexible schedules that will fit their personal and professional life, reducing burnout. In one instance, job sharing or part-time work can help the nurses to cope with workload without interfering with patient care. Improving mental health services and support can be helpful as well to help nurses cope with occupational stress (Scanlan and Still, 2019). Nurses can be assisted to overcome stress and develop resilience by regularly visiting mental health specialists and peer support groups. As an example, psychotherapy or mindfulness training may help a stressed nurse to feel better and enjoy his or her work. 

Scholarly Resources

The article The effects of stress-coping strategies and group cognitive-behavioral therapy on nurse burnout describes the ways of preventing nurse burnout using CBT (Bagheri et al., 2019). This research would help me to recommend the enhancement of nurse support resources by proposing that stress management techniques and group CBT can help nurses to enhance resilience during stress management. Another relevant article is named Nurse Faculty Burnout and Strategies to Avoid it. This article emphasizes the idea of work-life balance and workplace support to avoid burnout (Thomas et al., 2019). Flexible work and career development are mentioned, which adds to my demand to have increased support resources. These intervention strategies can enhance nurse burnout and work conditions.

Conclusion

Nurse burnout necessitates resources, workers and patient balance. Flexible scheduling and support resources help to avoid burnout by critically analyzing the overtime policy and pinpointing its ethical flaws. These are scientifically-based suggestions that enhance the working conditions of nurses. Nurse well-being can be improved by policy changes, resulting in a reduction of burnout, turnover, and the maintenance of a sustainable and efficient healthcare system.

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