I am a very new member but I got interested in this website while I was looking for information for a class presentation. I am a LPN student with 5 weeks left to go. I am doing a presentation on Nursing burnout and ways to prevent it. I would love for anyone to give me ideas that I can present to my class. I would love to hear from people that have personally gone through it or have prevented going through it by different measures!! Please!! Thanks!
Hi jenni welcome the the forums. Man, you have one tall order there. Do you have any preconceived notions yet about "burnout"? Something like a working outline? Some specific questions?
"Burnout" is just way too general and generic a term to be discussed objectively. What seems like burnout to one, looks like good sense to another. I think you have to narrow this down for it to make any sense to you, and to me.
O_S
I mainly want to know what people do to keep liking their job. We have to present ideas to the class to help people not get burned out. Nursing burn out to me is when you do not like to go to your job anymore and you dread going to work. I just wanted to know if anyone had any ideas about how to prevent it.
do the best job you can everytime you go to work
don't take other peoples bad days personal
do things for yourself so the job isn't the only thing you have
be flexabie
get involved in some of the decision making if you can.
good thing about nursing if you do get burn out on your unit/hospital go to a different one but don't job hop
Let's say that we are given a credit balance at the start of our career in three accounts; physical, emotional, and spiritual. If we bankrupt any of these accounts, I feel this could be classified as "burnout". Answer the questions posed below and imagine how that would effect someone either physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Make some up on your own. How would this contribute to bankrupting your accounts?
Let's look at cassioo's suggestions:
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do the best job you can everytime you go to work
[/ QUOTE ]
Why wouldn't one do the best job they can?
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don't take other peoples bad days personal
[/ QUOTE ]
Why are people having a bad day and why does this effect you?
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do things for yourself so the job isn't the only thing you have
[/ QUOTE ]
Why would people make their job the focus of their life?
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be flexible
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What circumstances are there when not being flexible is to your disadvantage?
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get involved in some of the decision making if you can.
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How does it effect you when you are not involved in decision making?
Here, I'll get you started.
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Why wouldn't one do the best job they can?
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1. Heavy patient assignment
2. Inadequate staffing
3. Difficult patient
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Why are people having a bad day and why does this effect you?
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1. Staff member with an attitude not willing to help you.
2. Supervisor not responsive to needs of unit because external problems.
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Why would people make their job the focus of their life?
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1. Sole support of family
2. Competition
3. Long time employee
You get the idea? Now decide how each would impact someone emotionally, physically, or spiritually over the long haul.
I was hoping that this thread would be a little more interactive. I guess that jenni decided to go get her fish sticks* elsewhere or she is busy with school. So, to finish up with this bank account simile here goes. What I proposed above did not mean that your account balances can only be debited. In other words, you can add to them. A vacation, perhaps, can be credited to you physical and spititual account. An active, happy dating life, can add to your emotional account. Church activites can add to your spititual account.
What I'm saying, in conclusion, is that work can be stressful but we need to add to the balances so we do not drain the resources from our emotional, physical, or spiritual accounts. This is how one avoids "burnout". IMHO
One of the best stress relievers I have found for myself is skydiving. Believe me, when you are sitting on the floor of a small airplane with a parachute rig on your back, by the time you get to 3500ft; all worldly problems that you have or perceive to have, pale in comparison to what is going to happen within the next 8 minutes. When you make it back alive, boy does that feel good.
O_S
*obscure reference to the saying "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for the rest of his life."
One of the best stress relievers I have found for myself is skydiving
unless your chute doesn't open that could be stressful for a couple of minutes then I guess the stress would be gone. That is something I've wanted to do but never did. I have flowen in ultralites though. My stress relief (if we haven't guess by now) is going to the beach.
I have been checking my thread, but I have really been busy with my class. I want to thank everyone for their inputs. I am at the time interviewing some local nurses at our clinical sites and also our teachers. I have gotten some really good ideas to present to my class. But I do not present it until Thursday so if anyone still has any ideas, I welcome them!! Thanks to everyone that gave their own personal ideas!
I think burn out can be prevented with "RESPECT". Nurses are not respected and apreciated for all the work they do. Doctors get all the credit for saving a life. I am a new nurse and already looked down on by my MD cousins, this is horrible. When people hear that I was a very good student and they often say, "why didn't you become a doctore." I hate the notion that nursing is a fall back choice for doctores. I love nursing but often feel we need more respect. The media is a major outlet for "the image of nursing". WE are seen as hand maden to doctors in most shows and make no decsions on our own. Everyone is always complaining about the nursing shortage why don't we do somehting about it. Better pay, Smaller Nurse to pateint ratio and more Nurses Aids to help us out would be wonderful too
Thank you for saying
Why are people having a bad day and why does this effect you?
this helps me
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BSN said:
Thank you for saying
Why are people having a bad day and why does this effect you?
this helps me
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Hi BSN welcome to the forums. Re: above quote. How so?
O_S
Well jenni showtime. Tell us how it went?
O_S
It went great!! Thanks so much for all of your inputs!!! I really appreciate it!! Only 3 weeks left to go!
Thanks again!
Hi BSN:
I applaud and agree with you totally.
In my student experience, the nurses seem to seeth over the "oh so arrogant doctors" but then when they interact with them, they are simpering and very respectful and suddenly passive. In fact, these same nurses suggest how we are to approach the doctors egos when dealing with them - absurd say I (yeah, you can see I'm gonna have nurse-doctor relationship problems in my career).
I think the pay is ridiculously low for the type of work nurses are doing in the hospital environment. Having spent 20 years in the white collar world of office work - I'm flabbergasted at the petty behavior in the medical field - especially among nurses to nurses. Not to say ALL nurses are like this but GOSH, there is a lot of unprofessional behavior about.
Nurses are not only mental giants (sorry guys and gals but you are) but have a can-do attitude and work INCREDIBLY hard for the money.
I like new experiences. I like a challenge. I like an atmosphere that teaches me new things. I would also like to be appropriately compensated for this level of skill and multiple talent.
I think doctors are incredible human beings too but more appropriately - they are compensated financially for their skill level and like BSN says - they get a lot of social respect that nurses do not.
Pay, work environment and social image needs to change in nursing if there is to be a permanent change to the nursing field.
