Nurse Burnout Essay

1336 Words6 Pages
Bobbi McCarthy RN-BSN student. Research Proposal.

Area of interest is nurse burnout and how to alleviate its symptoms.
Research Question:
Does the implementation of a self- care program using routine alternative therapies at home and at work, positively affect the nurse experiencing burnout.
Definition of burnout:
A popular term for a mental, and or physical energy depletion after a period of chronic, unrelieved job-related stress characterized sometimes by physical illness. The person suffering from burnout may lose concern or respect for other people and often has cynical, dehumanized perceptions of people, labeling them in a derogatory manner. Causes of burnout peculiar to the nursing profession often include stressful, even dangerous, work environments; lack of support; lack of respectful relationships within the health care team; low pay scales compared with physicians' salaries; shift changes and long work hours; understaffing of hospitals; pressure from the responsibility of providing continuous high levels of care over long periods; and frustration and disillusionment resulting from the difference between job realities and job expectations. (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009,Elsevier.)
ANA’s survey related to nurse burnout.
The online Journal of Nursing posted an article on Oct. 29.2007(Erikson&Grove) that shows how attending to the emotional dimensions of nurses’ work environments provides insight into the experience of burnout and why younger nurses may be particularly at risk…thus causing lower rates of retention.*
Because of the nature of nurses’ work, they are at an especially high risk for experiencing the emotional exhaustion component of burnout. This is problematic because the stress, danger, exhaustion, and frustration that have become built into the normal daily routine of hospital nurses constitute the single biggest
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