Overtime And Marital Strain Case Study

The idea of shift work is a common one, but for nurses this is not a simple changing of staff during a certain time, change of shift signifies a time of purposeful communication between nurses and patients, in order to promote patient safety and best practices (Caruso, 2007). During this time, there is the possibility for this critical opportunity to relay important information to become disorganized by extraneous information, rather than concentrating on the needs of the patient (Sullivan, 2010). Often the patient is left out of the conversation, and is not a part of the process. Patients and families can play an important role in making sure these transitions in care are safe and effective (AHRQ, 2013).

Career Issue Research Do the benefits of becoming a sports medicine physician outweigh the possible health risks involved with the career. Sports medicine physicians record athletes’ medical histories and perform and maintain records. They also record athletes’ medical histories and perform physical examinations” (“Sports Medicine Physician”). The three different branches of the sports medicine field are Primary Care Doctors, Orthopedic Surgeons, and Sports Psychiatrist” (Cresswell). “A doctor must work 18 hours a day and seven days a week.

Nurses are reporting dissatisfaction and feeling burn-out due to working longer and more hours. Consequently because of this, nurses are leaving their place of employment and employers are experiencing high turn-over rates and staff shortages. The bill, Registered Nurses and Patient Protection Act was introduced by U.S. House Representative Tom Lantos. In Lantos’s bill it states, “no registered nurse would be required to work beyond eight hours in any work day or 80 hours in any 14-day work period” (as cited in Jordan & Tabone, 2000). Lantos’s bill regulated the number of hours a nurse is required to work.

Working overtime signifies many variables such as working over 40 hours every week, mandatory as well as voluntary overtime, working paid shifts, extended shifts and working two shifts back to back (Kunaviktikul et.al.). The institute of medicine (2004) recommends nurses to avoid working beyond 12 hours per day and past 60 hours in a week, but the recommendation is often not followed through in the nursing profession (as cited in hahtela, paavilainen, mccormack, slater, helminen, suominen, 2015, p. 932). Nurses are perceived to be the once that are mandated to work overtime in the healthcare facility compared to any other health care professionals (Golden & Wiens-Tuers, 2005 as cited in Bae & Brewer, 2010, p.99). Increased physical injuries

Nurses experienced unsatisfied work environment, fatigue, burnout and increased in career change leading to the nursing

how could one expect to receive proper treatment in hospital when your nurse has more than 8 patients to care for which could lead to higher chances of negligence due to sheer exhaustion from over worked nurses. The possibility of patient- procedure- equipment related accidents would be higher. The problem of understaffing could be looked from the perspective of

Mandatory overtime is an issue faced by many nurses across the nation. It is seen as a solution to the nursing shortage crisis; however, it is not a sustainable solution as it has led to an increase in medical errors, increased patient mortality, decreased job satisfaction, nurse fatigue, and deficits in nurse’s work performance. Several states have enacted or are considering laws to prohibit this problem. According to Rubenfire, “This is something that's been going on in hospitals for a very long time,” Ruben noted. “But it is not as focused on as much in the past.”

The Effects of Working the Night Shift, written by Julia Tortorice, is an article about it affects health or nurses and how it affects their families. The author also mentions that currently acts are pending to improve staffing and the overall health of nurses. The author successfully uses humor and the logical appeal of pathos to make it easier to understand. She also gives advice of what a nurse can do which will help me brain storm my solutions in my paper. For instance, Tortorice (2014) says, “Studies have suggested that napping nurses suffer from less fatigue than non-napping nurses” (p. 3).

Clinical question The clinical question for my article was based on quantitative search, nurse to patient ratios must increase to improve safety and the clinical question that is identified in the quantitative research article is how to increase nurses to patient ratio in order to improve patient safety and quality of life especially in older adult patients. Description of the Problem The problem description in this article identified is that when there are too many patients assigned to a nurse there will not be an effective and well done job by the nurses and the patient will not be save.

Researchers theorize that shift work exerts adverse effects in nurse by disturbing circadian rhythms, sleep, and family and social life. Disturbances in circadian rhythms may lead to reductions in the length and quality of sleep and may increase fatigue and sleepiness, as well as gastrointestinal, psychological, and cardiovascular symptoms. In addition, working at unusual times may make it difficult to interact with family and maintain other social contacts. Similarly, long work hours may reduce the time available for sleep, leading to sleep deprivation or disturbed sleep and incomplete recovery from work. This may adversely affect nervous, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune functioning.

It is important to identify why nurses are becoming stressed and how to reduce work related stress. The past 10 years there has been an increase in stress levels for nursing staff. In 2001 a survey was conducted by “American Nurses Association”. The study results showed that 70.5% of nurses cited the acute and chronic effects of stress and overwork among their top three health and safety

Nurses fatigue is growing problem nurse face each day in the healthcare environment, and he can be caused by long hours, sleep deprivation, and possibly by accepting extra assignments can be dangerous for both nurses and patient. These inadequacies can result in major implications for the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care which can lead to fatalities. (American Nurses Association, 2014). In my experience, being fatigued from working much 12-hour shifts consecutively was very difficult as I felt extremely tired, resulting in lack of focus, missing important details during the handing over the process with impaired cognitive functioning. This I found was detrimental to the patients and myself as it impedes quality and has a deleterious effect on patient safety.

Just like a saw needs to stop being used in order to be sharpened, a nurse needs time off to recuperate; it’s as simple as that (Covey, 1989). It is important not to burn the candle at both ends, working more than the designated shifts and longer than 12 hours should be avoided. An example used regarding medication errors and working too many hours involves a nurse working a double shift on a pediatric oncology unit didn’t correctly prime an IV line and caused cardiac arrest in a patient (Kelley, 2004). Although nurses work three days a week, their hours remain the same as other full time employees that work the typical 5 day schedule. A nurse’s time off should be valued because they are the last line for patient care, they are the ones administering the medication the doctor prescribes and the pharmacy makes (Kelley, 2004).

Through intuition, superior nurses save lives and prevent further illness. Physical Endurance Maintaining physical health is a vital part of enduring the stressful and high-energy demands of the nursing profession. Nurses lift heavy patients, move weighty medical equipment, and may spend 12 hours or more on their feet during a shift. Accomplished nurses observe a healthy diet and perform regular exercise.

Sleep disturbance is a major complaint among shift workers. Fatigue, poor sleep, difficulty falling asleep, insomnia, wakefulness when trying to sleep, irritability, poor concentration are all symptoms of shift lag syndrome or shift worker syndrome. There has been much research done on the effects of sleep, performance and accidents comparing shift workers with day workers. Shift workers invariably report more sleep disturbance than day workers (Åkerstedt 2003) There is some evidence to suggest that rotating shifts clockwise every 2 weeks are better tolerated.