Caregiver Role Strain and Nurse Burnout Practicum

Practicum on Caregiver Role Strain and Nurse Burnout

Practice Issue and Evidence Summary (Corrected Milestone 1)

According to the survey-based research conducted on 1774 workers, burnout in nurses depicts itself in numerous ways. These include depersonalization, overinvestment, stress at work, and emotional exhaustion. This outcome resonated with existing findings hence a need for interventions to reduce workplace stress. Some of the interventions include cognitive behavioral therapy and stress-coping exercises proven to be effective. Counseling also plays an instrumental role in limiting job stress. Strain sets in when the players fail to meet their roles and nurses fail to offer quality services. It also affects turnover in organizations which is expensive. Thus, counseling can help identify the environmental factors associated with stress. Responding to role strain also involves co-management, where decisions are made collaboratively. The work environment should also be improved to counter burnout, reducing patients' mortality rate. However, this correlation does not translate to causality. Thus, role strain and burnout are the main problems faced by nurses.

Comprehensive Action Planning and Interdisciplinary Team Collaboration (Corrected Milestone 2)

Responding to burnout requires nurses to be part of a community network and equipped with appropriate skills to counter burnout. The second level includes interventions like better sleeping habits and integration of relaxing behavior like meditation and listening to music. Family dynamics like racialization should also be clearly understood. The benefits of such interventions are improved relationships, quality of life, and reduced stress levels hence better performance. Other support interventions include nurse motivation and enhanced collaboration. All these aims at realizing clinical goals

Summary of Implementation in the Clinical Area of Practice

The implementation involves using data derived from Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). The tool measures exhaustions by analyzing sixteen statements. Exhaustion values are labeled using even numbers 2 to 16, and disengagement is recorded using the odd scale from 1 to 15. The implementation procedure involves three nurses and a supervisor, all operating remotely. The assessment tool is administered to the three nurses, identifying three interesting items daily for two weeks. Documentation of collaboration among peers and with leaders is recorded for four weeks. It also records teamwork collaboration for one week. Nurse education is also integrated to cover daily content for four weeks. The wellness activity of the nurse is recorded bi-weekly for four weeks. Lastly, the assessment tool is readministered. Since the process is done remotely, the data is captured during Zoom meetings.

Analysis of the Outcomes

As explained, OLBI covers two aspects. First is the exhaustion-vigor, and the second is cynicism-dedication. Disengagement items are odd values from 1 to 15, and exhaustion items are even values from 2 to 16. These are summarized below (Demerouti et al., 2003):

1. Always finding new and exciting things at work

2. Sometimes feeling tired even before getting to work

3. Increased frequency of commenting negatively about work

4. After working, more time is needed to relax than before

5. Ability to tolerate pressure at work

6. No longer thinks so much about work but tends to work mechanically

7. My work is a positive challenge

8. Feels emotionally drained during work

9. Possible to get disconnected from the work overtime

10. Enough energy for leisure after work

11. Often feels sickened by the work

12. Feels weary and worn out after work

13. It is the only kind of work that I can think of doing

14. Have work management ability

15. There is a greater feeling of engagement at work

16. Working makes me feel energized

Scoring for each item is defined with 1, 5, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, and 16 having the following weights: Strong agreement, +1, Agreement, +2, Strong disagreement, +4. The scales are reversed for Items above including 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12, with strong agreement scoring four and strong disagreement weighting 1.

These values are used to get the OLBI score for each nurse by adding the two sets of values. High values depict high levels of burnout. It is vital to note that the categorization of these burnout levels differs, with some therapists classifying them high, medium, or low. The following scale is used in this classification: SD = 0.52, M = 2.15, ?1.62 = low, 1.63 -2.67 = medium and ?2.68 = high (Demerouti et al., 2003). It is critical to note that these are average values. Nurses have varying levels that run from low to high depending on the discussed work environment and relationships.

In this intervention, the study considers other factors linked to burnout, which would make the nurses register diverse OLBI scores despite being in the same work environment. The most important consideration is the work-family relationship. There is a positive relationship between these relationships and exhaustion hence a need to evaluate the relationship statuses of the three nurses. Nurses in the relationship recorded OLBI scores greater than 2.68, implying high burnout levels, while those outside the relationship recorded medium OLBI values. There is a significant variation in OLBI scores among the three nurses. Those who love their career and those who regret it. Those who recorded regrets have higher burnout levels because they lack motivation and see it as the wrong career. Another critical factor in this analysis is the workload which encompassed the number of working hours, the sum of shifts, and whether the shifts were during the day or night. These vary from hospital to hospital and the human capital in the working environment (Delgadillo et al., 2018). Nurses in pressured environments depict high OLBI scores.

In this implementation phase, multiple barriers influence the findings. The resources at the nurses' disposal influence role strain and nurse burnout. This emanates from the leadership characteristics in the work environment and how the nurses interact with their peers. Since these factors vary from one caregiver environment to another, giving a specific OLBI score represents all nurses (Anderson et al., 2021). Nurses in environments with better access to resources have lower burnout levels than those in strained environments. All other factors held constant (Mbanga et al., 2018). Here, this environment is determined by the capability of hospitals to equip the nurses with the right tools and human resources accessible to them.

Plan to Disseminate Results

The results from OLBI are used in initiating interventions and are disseminated to hospital administration to help structure the best work environment for nurses to minimize burnout. The results are also shared for academic research purposes to build on existing research on how burnout and role strain affect the quality of services offered by nurses. The results and interventions are also crucial to the nurse. It gives them a broader understanding of their working capabilities hence identifying the factors that make them experience high burnout. As a result, they can adopt a different approach to help them maximize their output.