The Demands of a Graduate Level Nurse Practitioner Program

A Graduate-level nurse Practitioner program is very demanding. How do you intend to address the demands?
The American healthcare system has been increasing in complexity, with future nursing professionals set to face an extremely challenging care delivery framework. Researchers hint at a continued rise in professional nursing staff shortage, with the nation’s aging population progressively increasing healthcare system demands (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2008). Healthcare facilities will be hard-pressed to be more cost- and resource- efficient owing to financial pressures (National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice, 2006). This paper will examine a few potential impacts of such demands that result in nursing staff burnout, followed by exploring potential triggers and coping plans.
Nursing Burnout Triggers and Coping Strategies
Nursing staff, indeed, demonstrates high burnout rate, resulting largely from emotional and physical exhaustion and a demanding work setting. An AMA (American Medical Association) journal-published research work revealed that four out of ten hospital nursing staff displayed high burnout scores, with 43.2 percent being in the upper emotional-collapse range. Adoption of the right approaches can aid graduate level nurse practitioners in coping with burnout and delivering superior performance.
Nursing Burnout Symptoms:
Nurse practitioners at the preliminary stage of burnout may:
· Struggle with rising from bed every morning
· Become anxious when faced with the thought of getting to their demanding workplace
· Experience recurrent stomach aches and headaches
· Experience sudden weight loss/gain
· Suffer from insomnia, or feel tired even after a whole night’s sleep
· Feel emotionally low and engage in self-blame. They may also feel:
i. Their patients are unappreciative despite their best efforts
ii. Administrators fail to recognize their efforts
iii. Nobody else cares as much about patients
iv. The management is only concerned with the budget
One unintentional coping mechanism is: ceasing from giving one’s best performance and working perfunctorily, without much empathy towards patients. Though this facilitates coping with stress, it further lowers the nursing professional’s self-esteem, owing to the awareness that they are delivering inferiorly. Cynicism is an indication of all-out burnout.
Triggers:
Burnout arises from a blend of physical and emotional workplace demands, besides nursing profession-specific demands like:
· Understaffing: This is a counterproductive, cost-cutting technique typically employed by healthcare organizations, resulting in psychological and physical overexertion among nursing professionals. According to the MNA’s (Michigan Nurses Association’s) Dawn Kettinger, caring for around twice the number of individuals than one ought to, is highly stressful.
· High Standards and Perfectionism: Such demands, when placed by hospital administrators or oneself, contribute greatly to nursing burnouts.
· Patient Deaths: If a nursing professional is already suffering from burnout, witnessing a patient death will greatly exacerbate the issue.
Ways to Cope
Nursing personnel who begin experiencing burnout symptoms ought to commence by accepting their own limitations, their peers, their organization and the overall profession. For a human being to collaborate with and care for fellow human beings within a demanding healthcare system is, on several occasions, quite challenging. Potentially effective coping strategies for graduate-level nurse practitioners include:
· Investing in Emotional Debriefing: This may be achieved through yoga, meditation, connecting with colleagues and one’s social circle, and positive affirmation to oneself.
· Getting a Physical: Medical practitioners typically procrastinate when it comes to seeking medical support for themselves. A physical may confirm nursing burnout diagnosis.
· Taking Regular Breaks: Working non-stop may lead to on-the-job errors, which may prove potentially deadly in the healthcare field.
· Joining a Committee: The opinions of nurses with regard to healthcare organizational staffing levels is crucial and may make a huge difference.
· Taking a Vacation: Nursing professionals normally work long hours, for several days on end. Taking a vacation from time to time can help them relax.







References
American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2008, May). AONE’s guiding principles for future patient care delivery; Nursing care across provider settings. Presented at the 118th meeting of the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice, Rockville, MD.
National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice. (2006). Meeting the challenges of the new millennium: Challenges facing the nurse workforce in a changing health care environment. Sixth Annual Report to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress. Rockville, MD: Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.