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Stress and Productivity in Nursing Working Environment

Stress and Productivity in Nursing Working Environment

In this era of increasing demand for health care and the increasing cases of chronic diseases, assisting the ill can take colossal physical and emotional tolls on the care providers. Consequently, the need to preserve the health and safety of the nurses is swiftly gaining attention. The nursing profession is highly stressful, with the unremitting emotional and physical strain that creates an unhealthy work environment and threatens the quality and safety of the patients (Hanson, Onasoga & Babalola, 2017). The key contributors to nurse stress and the overall satisfaction include quality of care, cultural safety, and the work environment. Several organizational factors influence nurse burnout, including the length of time they spend in a single work shift.

Stress is rated as among the leading work-related health problems by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (Hanson, Onasoga & Babalola, 2017). By definition, stress refers to the state of emotional or physical exhaustion that reduces personal identity and accomplishment. Health workers, especially the nurses, are at risk of developing stress, considering the nature of interactions at their workplaces (Moustaka & Constantinidis, 2010). Registered nurses (RN) are the largest affected group as they face more challenges than just addressing patient needs but also deal with administrative demands, unachievable deadlines, work speed, and coordinating the co-workers.

Several stress management techniques can be employed to help nurses. Stress management techniques can be those that one can do in isolation, and others involve group activities. This presentation focuses on the relaxation procedures that the RN nurses can perform at the hospital to reduce stress. The relaxation techniques are important in occupation-related stresses. Some of the relaxation techniques include taking deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation (yoga), and taking time to laugh (Madmoli et al., 2019). Breathing exercises involve long, slow, deep breaths that gently disengage the mind from the distracting thoughts and the exhaustion drawn from the work environment. Yoga is a good artistic technique for muscle relaxation since the physical aspects of the procedure distract the mind from the work exhaustion (Madmoli et al., 2019). The hospital to introduce a rest area where the nurses can take to rest as they focus on breathing and medicate. Besides, the rest area can be used for prayer sessions as prayers equally help one relax.

PICO (T) Question

PICOT (T): Does relaxation techniques for RN professionals working for Westchester General Hospital, decrease the stress associated with work assignments, and increase productivity, over six months’ period?

P- Population is RN professionals working at Westchester General Hospital. The target population is Resident Nurses that is reduced to focus on those working for Westchester General Hospital.

I-Relaxation techniques. The intervention is a relaxation technique as a mitigation to reduce the level of stress drawn from the work environment for the RN professions.

C-Working without relaxing. The intervention compares to a population of RN professions at the same institution who work without relaxing.

O- Decreases the stress associated with work assignments and increased productivity. The outcome of the intervention is to reduce the level of stress among the RN professions that consequently improve their productivity.

T- Six months. The inquiry is to take six months.

Healthy People 2020 Preventive Services

Healthy People 2020 outlines measures for preventing occupational stress in healthcare professionals. The review considers the work-related stress that can lead to severe distress, physical illness, and burnout. The group targeted by the intervention includes the working population. The participants were 7188 in 58 related studies. The interventions highlighted strategies that are important in reducing stress among nurses to include mental and physical relaxation, combined cognitive-behavioral training, and organizational interventions. Organizational interventions include increased communication skills, change in work schedules, and changes in work conditions. Healthy People 2020 outlines the provisions in the OSH-9 (Occupation Safety and Health) that suggest that the increase in the proportion of employees who get access to the programs that are aimed at reducing stress and minimize the causes of low productivity.

Policy for Preventive Services

The design and implementation of primary preventive services in a health institution to help in mitigating a health problem like the case of stress among the RN professions necessitate the development of a policy framework. Public health policy developers work in support of measures that aim at improving the health of persons, communities, and health care providers (Yue et al., 2019). Robust public health policy in a healthcare facility is one that focuses on maximizing health, ensuring the healthcare providers achieve the values they uphold. The six fundamental elements in a preventive public policy include; innovation, effective performance, Technical set of a restricted number of high-priority interventions that are evidence-based, partnership, effective communication, and political commitment.

Innovation involves coming up with strategies that are evidence base for action (Yue et al., 2019). Effective performance management involves real-time monitoring, evaluation, and measures for health care improvement. A technical set of a restricted number of high-priority interventions must be evidence-based (Agarwal et al., 2017). Partnerships and coalitions of both the private and public sectors are important in coming up with a robust public policy. The process of design and implementation of the policy requires effective communication. Effective communication defines the accurate and timely pass of information to the various stakeholders, including the RN nurses, the hospital community, hospital management, and the policymakers (Agarwal et al., 2017). Getting political commitment is important in getting resources and support from the local and state government.

Steps in Developing Primary Health Plan

The process of developing sturdy primary healthcare involves eight steps, as discussed below.

Step 1: Situational Analysis

Situational analysis is getting the necessary information on the various stressors among the RN professionals (Owen et al., 2019). Explore the existing intervention set by the hospital in resolving the identified causes of stress, the strategies in addressing, and the team tasked with implementing the strategies. Establish how best the existing interventions have been effective in addressing the stressors and consider how to engage the hospital community and stakeholders in resolving the current needs.

Step 2: Identify the Problem

A Problem in a healthcare system defines the gap between the desired situation and the existing situation. The step involves engaging the RN professionals to discuss the stressors within their work environment and the various causes (Owen et al., 2019). Additionally, the problem identification step involves finding individuals to benefit from the recommended interventions.

Step 3: Prioritizing the Identified Needs

This step involves prioritizing the health needs and making a strategic choice on the criteria and order for implementation. The process of prioritization is important in determining the most important problem to focus on first (Owen et al., 2019). The most effective system for ordering is establishing a standard of measure. The evaluating standards of effects of stress on nurses include the extent of the effect on the RN population, the resultant cases of deaths that are linked to practitioner negligence, and the concerns raised by the community.

Step 4: Setting Goals and Objectives of the Plan

Clarity of the objective and the goals of the primary plan is an important aspect of its effectiveness. The relevant teams set by the organization to design program for releasing stress on the nurses must review what need to be covered and set priorities.

Step 5: Review the Set Objectives and Goals

The set goals and objectives need to be reviewed to ensure they solve the problem identified. The objectives of the plan must be able to reduce stress among nurses and improve productivity (Colvin & Sugai, 2017). A review of the objectives may suggest those to drop, change, or revise.

Step 6: Categorize and Ordering the Activities

Sequencing activities is important in pinpointing the dependencies between the actions to determine those which comes first to enable the other accomplished (Colvin & Sugai, 2017). Besides, it is significant to ascertain the activities that can be done concurrently.

Step 7: Identify the Necessary Resources

This stage involves determining the essential resources for actualizing the set objectives (Colvin & Sugai, 2017). The relevant resources in actualizing a primary health plan targeted at reducing stress at the workplace include staff, equipment, materials, power, and accommodation.

Step 8: Action Plan

The last stage includes setting up a practical action plan as to the objectives of the plan and the schedule of the various activities (Colvin & Sugai, 2017). It is important to ensure that the action plan achievable by the resources available.

Evaluation of Primary Health Plan

Criteria for Evaluating the Primary Health Plan

Evaluation of a primary health plan is described as a critical, rigorous, systematic, and ethical assessment of if the plan meets the objectives. The aspects of the plan to reduce stress among nurses assess the effectiveness, impartiality, efficiency, and suitability (Keleher et al., 2017). The effectiveness of this plan is measured by the improvement the nurses get from the activities outlined in the plan. The evaluation of efficiency compares the benefits of the plan and the cost involved in actualizing the plan. Acceptability of the plan is evaluated by measuring social, psychological, and ethical relevance to the RN professional at the hospital (Williams, Sevdalis & Gaughran, 2019). The primary healthcare plan must be impartial, where the benefits of the plan are distributed fairly among the hospital staff and the community.

The plan to improve the nursing environment at the hospital must be able to achieve the basic objectives, including improved healthcare standards, guaranteed financial impartiality, and improved responsiveness to the resident nurses. The level of insight into the plan objectives provides a critical reflection of the performance of the plan as a whole (Williams, Sevdalis & Gaughran, 2019). The framework for evaluating primary healthcare includes four main functions of a healthcare system, including access to services, comprehensiveness, continuity of care, and coordination of care.

Continuity of services is the access to care services over a longer period and in successive incidents of care (Keleher et al., 2017). Coordination of services in a primary healthcare plan is essential in determining the responsiveness of health services. Cross-sectional coordination of services refers to the harmonization of information and services with a chapter of care (Keleher et al., 2017). Comprehensiveness denotes the extent of the full range of care services either directly by the RN professionals or by other healthcare providers. In the primary care system, comprehensiveness provides that the services should be rehabilitative and supportive.

Measures for Evaluating Primary Health Plans

 

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