Prioritizing nurses’ mental health: we must do higher

Recently I had the chance to seek advice from nurses about their mental health and well-being. The results were disturbing; several nurses I spoke to felt burned out, exhausted, and had nothing left to present to patients and even their very own families. Nurses described not feeling valued by their organization, leaders, and even patients. Their health care facilities didn’t see the identical increase in patient volume as in the course of the pandemic, but many continued to experience staffing problems as a consequence of nurse departures, retirements, or staffing cuts. Nurses talked about workplace incivility and feeling like they weren’t exercising in a healthy work environment.

Recent research shows that as many as 45–60% of nurses and health care employees experience burnout (Dzau, Kirch, & Nasca, 2020). In one recent study, as many as 66% of nurses under the age of 35 reported feeling anxious, and 47% experienced feelings of depression (ANA, 2021). In one other study, 5.5% of nurses experienced suicidal thoughts, which was 1% more likely than other health care employees (Kelsey, West, & Cipriano, 2021). In a recent survey of nurses, 60% of respondents experienced burnout; 30% experienced it for over a 12 months and 20% for two years in a row (Robbins, 2022).

The pandemic has worsened nursing shortages

Those of us who work in healthcare have had enough! We know that being a nurse is demanding because we take care of people and their families and support them through one of the best and worst moments of their lives. We expect work to be intellectually stimulating and sometimes tiring. We knew that in the course of the pandemic we could be under maximum load and we took up the challenge. We expected this to affect our work-life balance within the short term. We didn’t expect constant staffing problems, burnout, mental and physical exhaustion and chronic work-life balance. The nursing shortage has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which in turn has worsened the situation for nurses who’re still practicing or enthusiastic about entering the career.

Healthcare organizations must provide a healthy work environment

We just should do higher! Healthcare organizations must adopt a culture of healthy work environments, staff patient units by integrating nurse competencies and patient care into their staffing systems, and reveal that they value their workforce by specializing in staff retention and addressing compensation and advantages issues. In addition, they need to modernize their recruitment and orientation programs and develop nursing residency programs to make sure recent graduates stay of their organization longer than two years. There must be renewed interest in developing profession pathways for many who wish to advance into adjoining positions or move into leadership positions reminiscent of management or advanced practice.

Healthcare systems need to enhance mental health protection for his or her employees; this includes having the proper mental health professionals who can recognize when staff are struggling and quickly get help to those that need it. This means working to remove the stigma of mental health care and ensure it is instantly available when and where employees need it (Rushton & Boston-Leary, 2022). We must engage employees in any respect levels, hearken to concerns and develop modern solutions that make an actual difference by improving worker well-being.

Nurses understand how great our career is when we’ve got the resources, energy and staff to supply our patients with the high-quality nursing care they deserve. We need to seek out passion for our career and picture the chances of well-being at the guts of who we’re and what we do.
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Wolters Kluwer focuses on providing healthcare professionals with evidence-based information when and where they need it. To achieve one of the best patient outcomes, worker well-being is crucial; That’s why we put money into providing nurses and other healthcare employees with the data they should improve their well-being. It’s not nearly; our institutions must give attention to . It is critical to supply healthcare employees with the resources they should improve their mental health and well-being, find their passion and picture their future possibilities.

Bibliography

Dzau, V. J., Kirch, D., and Nasca, T. (2020). Preventing a parallel pandemic – a national technique to protect physician well-being. (6), 513–515. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2011027

American Nurses Foundation. (2021, October 13). Pulse of the Nation Nurse Research Series: Mental Health and Wellbeing. Monitoring emotional health, post-traumatic stress, resilience and well-being activities. https://www.nursingworld.org/~4a22b6/globalassets/docs/ancc/magnet/anf-mh3-writing-report-final-foundation-edits-2.pdf

Kelsey, E. A., West, C. P., Cipriano, P. F., Peterson, C., Satele, D., Shanafelt, T., & Dyrbye, L. N. (2021). Original research: Suicidal ideation and help-seeking attitudes amongst US nurses compared with the overall working population., (11), 24–36. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000798056.73563.fa

 Rushton, C. H. and Boston-Leary, K. (2022). Nurses Suffering in Silence: Overcoming Mental Health Stigma in Nursing and Healthcare., (8), 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000853148.17873.77

 Robbins, R. (2022, August 17). Medical Nurses. https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2022-np-burnout-rpt-6015568#1