It goes without saying that if you’re a nurse, you work in a high-stress environment. Burnout syndrome among nurses is approaching epidemic levels, duelargely to a “perfect storm” of record numbers leaving the profession,insufficient recruitment of new staff and the general “cost of living” struggle in wider society. A new study in the UK has revealed that nurses are struggling with high levels of burnout and depression, and almost a third of NHS nursesare quitting within three years of joining, a 50% increase since 2013.
The reasons are almost always complex but tend to include factors such as poor working environments, greater workloads, the threat of COVID-19exposure, risks to health, financial pressures, long shifts with little time to eat or drink, shortages of personal protective equipment, and dangerously extended working hours due to colleagues’ sickness or other absence.
In particular the effect of insufficient pay rises to meet the challenges of the cost of living are adding an extraordinary amount of additional pressure on nurses as well as other professionals within the healthcare sector.
The physical, mental, and emotional strain resulting from all these factors can collectively be known as burnout. Burnout is effectively acombination of conditions arising from a number of different causes, andalthough the causes can vary the symptoms are often devastating.
Probably the first step must be the acknowledgement of the problem. Burnout syndrome is hardly new to the nursing profession (nor indeed to many otherhigh-stress professions, particularly within the healthcare sector), but it is something which occurs widely across the sector and is especially prevalent amongst the nursing profession. Symptoms tend to include emotional exhaustion and a low sense of personal achievement, sometimes but not always due to extended exposure to emotionally demanding and stressful situations.
Provision of professional support to nurses helps, for example if stress management workshops are available within the workplace and are positively promoted. Nursing networks can make a difference and provide comfort and relief. It can be extremely helpful to have someone outside of work who can listen to concerns and give emotional support. Strong and positive communication between colleagues and staff members can alleviate nursing burnout syndrome as well.
Work-life balance is also essential in avoiding burnout syndrome in the nursing profession. It is however one of the most challenging targets to achieve, given long shifts and ever-increasing demands on nurses. Again the cost of living is a major factor here, given that “life” is increasingly becoming as stressful and challenging as “work” for many people.
Setting boundaries around workload is essential in tackling the factors that give rise to burnout amongst staff. One good example is encouraging nurses to take breaks- this sounds simple, but most nurses don’t (or often feel that they can’t) take sufficient breaks. Delegation of workloads is anotherimportant thing to consider, as well as like covering too many co-workers’ shifts,or taking on too many new tasks. These are practices worth striving towards,even if current conditions mean that they are often difficult to achieve consistently in practice.
