Workplace Fatigue Essay

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Workplace Fatigue; Finding a solution to this common problem

I chose to talk about workplace fatigue because it is so common among all types of nurses and needs to be addressed and worked on. A big thing for nurses to do is to understand their limit and signs that they are becoming too tired or stressed. When nurses get stressed it starts to affect their lives at work and home. A major problem with fatigued nurses is patient care. The fatigued nurse becomes overwhelmed and can easily make mistakes such as medication errors or performing procedures on the wrong patient. They also begin to lose compassion for their patient and become more task oriented. Often times it gets to a point where they are just showing up for work and lose sight of their original desire to help an ill patient get better or make a difference in their patients day. We go into nursing with the intention to help people who need it and share with patients our nurturing personalities but that sometimes gets lost in the tangled web of stressful situations, long work weeks, long shifts, increasing patient-to-nurse ratios, constantly changing field, and not enough education on the support systems in place or methods for coping. One thing I’ve noticed to be very common with nurses is remembering to take care of themselves. They spend all their time taking care of others that they don’t leave time for themselves to get a massage at least once a month, take a relaxing bath after a long day, exercise, or setup an outlet for the sad situations they encounter. Just like in nursing with patients nurses need to work on prevention of rather than treatment of burnout. To prevent burnout you have to first understand what is the cause of your stress and then address it. Is it work related or something in your personal life? Is it something you can change easily or will it take work? Sometimes it’s as simple as

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