Work-life balance and employee exhaustion in medical residency programs

Health System Management

State why this issue selected by the student.

In modern lifestyles, work stress is getting very common. Social life and work both have undergone drastic change in this new century. All the professions have been hit directly and even the physical health of the professionals has been affected badly because of it. With the health of the workers the health of the organization is also affected adversely (AACN, 2008).

On one side, where there is a heavy demand of life improving actions on the other side we see a demand of better customer services. It is an employee's duty to fulfill the demand of the customers, even if he is stressed, while doing so he must have a firm believe on the fact that customers are always correct (AACN, 2008).

There lies an indirect link between the hospital's high employer turnover rate during the residency program and the exhausted employees. In this era where the countries are fully knowledge based, this crucial issue is being ignored (AACN, 2008).

Every fresh graduate should be provided with a healthy working environment and this requirement is also considered as an integral part of human resource planning. The planning of organizations should be targeted to seek competitive advantage by promoting commitment towards employees, by working on reduced costs and on increased productivity (AACN, 2008).

Statement of the Problem

In the residency program of today, employee exhaustion is becoming very common.

Research Question

What is the perception of the residency graduates with regards to work life balance?

Research Objectives

1. What are the stressors that affect the performance of employees in a residency program and what are its causes?

2. How is performance quality affected by excessive workload?

3. Scrutinize the adverse affects that affect the hospitals and the grad retention level?

4. Examine the effects of stress on the graduate himself and on his family?

5. How efficiently the residency program is being handled by the employees in the workplace?

The Significance of the Study

This study is focusing on the perception of graduates in relation to the work life issues; this is why it is believed that this study will carry great significance throughout the world.

1) The policy makers are going to be highly benefitted by the findings of this study because the top management and the policy makers of the residency programs and the hospitals will make use of this study to finalize their decisions and they would also utilize this study for effective funding of the residency program.

2. For the international research on employee's exhaustion and work life balance issues, this study will become a useful tool in future.

b. Relate issue to healthcare management with literature review, statistical findings and why the issue is important to Senior Management of the chosen Healthcare System.

c. How does the issue impact the chosen healthcare system

According to Lynn-McHale (2011), the work-related problematic issues of the medical industry, which have become very common, are not taken seriously yet. The researcher's main objective was to clarify the stressors who are main bone of contention and continuously causing different problems by using multiple-regression techniques and try to maintain a profile of creating false impact of the role strain (Lynn-McHale, 2011).

A research has been conducted on hospital staff including line employees, upper and middle management which proved that low standard decision making and confusion regarding role of particular staff members had affected the entire hospital environment. The research, which was based on stratified sampling, also depicted that work-stress and confusion among the employees have created the symptoms of helplessness, a form of stress (Hodges et al., 2008). However, the confusions among the roles of employees have lesser influence on the symptoms regarding stress. Logical and systematic pattern is developed that may become a point of concern of work stress and hamper employee empowerment at 3 different stages. So, in order to reduce the impacts of these problems on the quality of service provided by the hospital, incorporated strategies should be drawn by the management (Hodges et al., 2008).

A research was conducted by Kim (2009) about the work-related problems, jobs opportunities and the five personality aspects which are: amicability, extraversion, conscientiousness, experience and neuroticism. The main source of information in this research was a restaurant staff including managers, supervisors and lower management employees which normally required fast service. An innovative idea of engagement was adopted in order to reduce work-related stress. The main depiction of this research was the two different ideologies that were followed by different aspects of personality (KIM, 2009).

The personality trait of neuroticism is considered to be most influential on work-related stress and the traits which foresee engagement are neuroticism and conscientiousness. The positive attributes of personality like amicability and extraversion do not have powerful impact on work burnout and these traits also do not have any connection with the staff's work engagement (Kim, 2009).

The connectivity among the engagement, burnout, coping and the entire health conditions of the residency students was identified by Pienaar and Willemse (2008). The research methodologies used were The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Cybernetic Coping Scale and General Health Questionnaire (Pienaar and Willemse, 2008).

Results show that the health of the staff can be determined by considering various sentiments regarding the achievements and commitments. There should also be certain measures that help in coping as well as the ability to withstand any symptoms during the process. Little attention has been given to the respective career patterns amongst the staff of the hospital by Organizational psychology (Pienaar and Willemse, 2008).

A model that consists of 3 dimensions regarding the psychological reactions in response to burnouts is provided by Newmann and Grigg (2008). Furthermore, 7 factors causing burnout were also identified. Both models are being used by the researcher for purposes of statistical analysis.

Exhaustion: Employees are bound to get exhausted as well as burned-out when they encounter a burden of workload. It further results in deficiencies of mental and physical energy as well as emotion. This is usually the case when employees work for countless number of hours without taking a break and end up doing work that is way beyond their capability. They start moving away intellectually as well as emotionally from the life of work considered as a mechanism to cope since they become so worn-out (Newmann and Grigg, 2008).

Cynicism: The employee experiences an increased level of tiredness due to the increased pressure and exhaustion from work. The more it is felt, the more effort is given to distancing oneself away. There are higher risks involved of becoming insensitive as well as considerably negative in the process of distancing. Cynicism occurs simultaneously with exhaustion, among burned out employees. This is seen as a reaction to the increased workload. Through moving away from the work, employees seek to gain some emotional relief as well as reduce the feeling of helplessness that surrounds them because of going through the increased work (Newmann and Grigg, 2008).

Inefficacy: Employees stop feeling motivated due to the amount of overwork. Moreover they consider themselves as useless and not skilled enough to effectively and efficiently perform their tasks. This feeling decreases productivity and extends to tiredness and lack of motivation starts creeping in. Higher levels of discontentment with oneself as well as the work is experienced when the employees start believing that they are incapable of achieving the targets and goals assigned to them (Newmann and Grigg, 2008).