Nursing burnout fuels workers shortage in the field

By SAMANTHA KIM

Amanda Eichmann, 21, a nursing student at Ramapo College, could not comprehend what had happened at her clinical during her 12-hour shift. A patient had just passed away around 11 a.m., and five minutes later Eichmann was in another patient’s room where she had to check their blood glucose levels and help them go to the bathroom.

“It was go, go, go. Go do this, go do that, and I didn’t even have a second to process what happened a few minutes before,” said Eichmann. “When I got home that night, I was just so tired. I’m always so tired now, and it fully hit me that someone’s loved one just passed, and all I did was cry.”

The Bachelor of Science Nursing degree was chosen as the toughest degree among all college degrees by the Guinness Book of World Records, and burnout amongst nurses and nursing students is a problem within the profession. It begins as soon as they step into nursing school and continues throughout their career. However, there is more being done today to prevent it.

Burnout

Burnout is a combination of exhaustion, cynicism and perceived inefficacy resulting from long-term job stress and has reached rampant levels among a third of nurses in the United States. Higher levels of burnout are associated with higher rates of both patient mortality and the spread of hospital-transmitted infections. This applies to nursing students as well.

“If you go into nursing with a negative mindset, then that day is going to go so slow,” said Jade Torres, 22, a Ramapo nursing student. “By the time you reach the middle of your shift you’re so burnt out you don’t want to deal with anybody and that endangers the patient.”

In a 2007 study, it was found that a high mean of “reduced professional accomplishment” dimension was associated with the need for intervening in the case of undergraduate nursing students, reviving their original motivation for the field.

“In nursing school you have exams on top of exams, and it’s never ending,” said Melanie Cardoso, a 21-year-old nursing student. “I feel like there have been multiple times where my brain was going to explode.”

Almost every fifth nurse reported extremely high levels of burnout at some point during their first three years after graduation in a 2011 study in the International Journal of Nursing Studies. Found in a 2014 study, authentic leadership and psychological capital have protected new nurses from negative early career work experiences.

Burnout Research Vol. 1 Issue 1 Study

“There’s a saying that’s famous between nurses which is that ‘nurses eat their young’ and they really do,” said Eichmann. “It’s really hard to find a nursing mentor that is going to help you every step of the way, and once you enter the hospital a lot of grads go into the hospital and break down because you are thrown in with no assistance whatsoever.”

With changing times and an increase in mental health awareness, new methods of preventing burnout are being implemented.

Prevention

For students, professors such as Assistant Professor of Nursing at Ramapo College Anne Marie Flatekeval try to help prevent burnout through methods such as meditation. Flatekeval uses the app “Headspace: Meditation & Sleep” with her students to help them relax at the start of class. Her fifth week check-in with her students reported that 95% “like” the mindfulness routine while the other 5% say “it’s okay.”

“I always tell them, especially if they are long days, not to do any more work and that they have to go home and to spend time with family, friends, and/or alone,” said Flatekeval. “I try to put their mental health into perspective for them. You can’t always be studying, you’re going to burn yourself out.”

In hospitals around the country, nursing residency programs are being created to ease the transition to practice for recent graduates. As of 2020, 19 New Jersey hospitals have entered the New Jersey Nurse Residency Collaborative. Their mission is to prepare new nurses to meet the demand of the evolving healthcare system and promote guidance and mentorship for new nurses in the field.

Shortages

Although there are new programs and techniques being implemented to help with a nurses’ transition, nursing shortages are still on the rise, which does not help reduce burnout amongst current and future nurses.

“We did go through nursing shortages when I was a new nurse, and maybe there was burnout, but we didn’t have a name for it,” said Flatekeval. “There wasn’t any support in place to help deal with it, so you kind of just dealt with it, and talking to other nurses helped.”

The nursing profession began with Florence Nightingale and has been associated with being “women’s work.”

One of the fastest growing jobs is that of health aids which consists of 90% being female. When men take these “pink-collar” jobs, they feel stigmatized. This consequently harms the healthcare industry because it can deter men from pursuing degrees in nursing and addressing the nursing shortages affecting communities across the U.S..

“One patient I had asked why I was a nurse and not a doctor because I’m a guy, and I didn’t know what to say to that,” said Torres. “Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean that I can’t do what a female nurse can, and just because a nurse is female doesn’t mean she can’t do what a male nurse can do.”

The Recognition They Deserve

Nurses are getting more recognition for their heroism, especially during Covid. At the peak of the pandemic, some nurses recorded themselves on TikTok in their cars, sobbing after extremely long shifts as a result of all the death they had seen. People in major cities banged pots and pans at 7 p.m. every evening to show appreciation for all the healthcare workers and what they do.

“Ultimately, I think part of it is that you can’t deliver good care if you don’t take care of your own mental health,” said Flatekeval. “Through all the tough times, I think being a nurse no matter what aspect of it is, we make a difference in people’s lives, and that is the most rewarding thing.”