Stress and Long Working Hours on Nurses who work

Specialty unit

Shanakay Haughton RN BSN NPs Coppin State

UniversityNUR 513

Objective

At the end of the presentation participant will be able to:

Know what is stress

Why nurses are stress

How long hours affects stress in nursing

How nurses can deal with stress

What is Stress

Stress related to job is harmful physical and emotional response or reaction to the demands of a job (Yoon & Kim, 2013)

Stress is considered a normal part of work and ever work has stress (Yoon & Kim, 2013, p. 174).

Facts about Stress

According to American Holistic Nurses Association everyone experiences stress and 70.5% of nurses experiences acute and chronic stress (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2011) .

Stress has been in the top three safety concern reported by nurses in the work place (AHNA, 2011).

Facts about Stress

The nursing profession encounters varying stressor as a reflection of the current state of health care, resulting in high levels of job frustration, stressors due to shortage of staff, greater acuity and longer working hours (Riahi, 2011).

Why are nurses stress?

Nurses are stress because of increase workload, inadequate staff cover, time pressure, relationship with other staff, Long working hours, lack of supervisory support, coping with emotional needs of patients and their families (AHNA, 2011).

What did research say about stress?

The result of stress in nurses can be severe to the point where it causes anxiety, insecurity, negative work performance, and they sometimes develop depressive symptoms (Yoon & Kim, 2013)

What did research say about stress?

Nurses suffered from higher degrees of physiological stress, which causes them to be easily burnt out (Su, Weng, Tsang, & Wu, 2009).

Stress in nurses increases their risk of substance abuse and suicide.

Nurses are likely to be irritable with their coworkers and their patient because they are stress (Su, Weng, Tsang, & Wu, 2009 )

Work hours

Nurses usually work hours beyond the standard nine to five and it creates a physical or mental demand on their body ( Gobubic et al., 2009).

Longer working hours are associated with increase in physical and total exhaustion levels of nurses (Barker & Nussbaum, 2010).

Work hours

Long working hours has been found to be associated with heart disease, immunologic reaction, sleep deprivation, diabetes and subjective health concerns such as depression and fatigue (Virtanen et al., 2008).

Long working hours and fatigue has been link to patient safety issues such as medication errors and needle sticks (Castro et al, 2010).

What did research say about work hours?

Nurses who work longer hours and those who are not satisfied with their shift has more health complaints and more emotional exhaustion (Peters, Rijk, & Boumans, 2009).

What did research say about work hours?

The study shows that as the day progress nurses are easily fatigued.

They has deterioration in their judgment, their reaction time, as well as their physical and psychological stress which affects their work performance (Lam, Wong, Mary, Lam, & Pang, 2010).

What did research say about work hours?

Nurses who work longer hours are at increased risk for disability than those who work regular hours (Peters, Rijk, & Boumans, 2009).

The long work hours have been a factor why many nurses leave the profession.

Nurses on Specialty unit

Mental Health Nurse-Stressors more common on mental health unit includes safety issues, the intense nature of the nurse to patient interaction (Hamaideh, 2012).

Confronting difficult and challenging behavior is common on mental health unit (Hamaideh, 2012).

Lock unit

Nurses on Specialty unit

Emergency room and observation unit nurses have more stress than nurses who work regular medical surgical unit (Adriaenssens, Gucht, Doef, & Maes, 2010)

Aggression and violence that the emergence room nurses encounters from patients and family exceeds that of nurses on other units (Sonya & Tyrrell, 2011).

Long working hour pair with buzzing of the cardiac monitor increases stress in telemetry nurses (Sonya & Tyrrell, 2011).

Nurses on Specialty unit

Nurses were stress because of their work environment, such as shortage of staff, excessive work load and clustering of the area with staff (Sonya & Tyrrell, 2011).

They were also stress because of poor management and the frequency at which doctors rotate (Sonya & Tyrrell, 2011)

How can Nurses cope with stress?

Be organized

Identify Stressors

Nutrition

Exercise

Sleep

Laugh- such appropriate humor to lighten the mood

How can Nurses cope with stress?

Take a break- this will help during the 12 –hour shift

Treat yourself on off days

Spend time with friends who are not nurses

Think positive- avoid negative people when possible

Collaborate with administration to resolve workplace issues

How can Nurses cope with stress?

Support each other:

This is a weakness in the nursing profession. “Nurses tend to be highly critical of themselves and other. When you are working in a high-stress environment, it is so important that everyone is seeking the best in each other.”

ReferenceAdriaenssens, J., Gucht, V., Doef, M., & Maes, S. (2010).

Exploring the burden of emergency care: predictors of stress-health outcomes in emergency nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 67(6).

American Holistic Nurses Association (2011, February 18). Holistic stress management for nurses. Retrieved October 10, 2013, from http:/www.ahna.org/Resources/Stress-Management

Barker, L., & Nussbaum, M. (2010). Fatigue, performance and the work environment: a survey of registered nurses. Journal of Advance Nurseing, 67(6), 1370-1382.

Castro, A., Fujishiro, K., Rue, T., Tagalog, E., Samaco-Paquiz, L., & Gee6, G. (2010). Associations between work schedule characteristics and occupational injury and illness. International Nursing Review, 57, 188-194.

Golubic, R., Milosevic, M., Knezevic, B., & Mustajbegovic, J. (2009). Work related stress, education and work ability among hospital

nurses. Journal of Advanced nursing, 65(10), 2056-2066.

Reference

Hamaideh, S. (2012). Occupational stress, social support, and quality of life among jordanian mental health nurses. Mental Health Nursing, 33, 15-23.

Riahi, S. (2011). Role stress amongst nurses at the workplace: concept analysis. Journal of Nursing Management, 19, 721-731.

Lam, T. P., Wong, W. S., Mary, S. M., LAM, K. F., & Pang, S. L. (2010). Psychological well- being of interns in Hong Kong: What causes them stress and what helps them. Medical Teacher, 32(3), 120-126.

Peters, V. P., Rijk, A. E., & Boumans, N. P. (2009). Nurses' satisfaction with shift work and associations with work, home and health characteristics: a survey in the Netherlands. Journal of Advance Nursing, 65(12), 2689-2700.

ReferenceSonya, H., & Tyrrell, M. (2011). Stress in emergency departments: experiences

of nurses and doctors. Emergency Nurse, 19(4), 31-37.

Virtanen, M., Singh-Manoux, A., Ferrie, J., Gimeno, D., Marmot, M., Elovainio, M., Jokela, M., & Vahtera, J. (2008). Long working hours and cognitive function -the whitehall ii study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169(5), 596-605.

Wu, S., Li, H., Wang, X., Yang, S., & Qui, H. (2011). A comparison of the effect of work stress on burnout and quality of life between nurses and female doctors. Environmental and Occupational Health, 66(4), 193-199.

Yoon, S., & Kim, J. (2013). Job-Related stress, emotional labor,

and depressive symptoms among Korean nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45(2), 167-176.

Questions???