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Nursing Admission Essay
INSTRUCTIONS:
Write a Nursing Admission Essay on Why are you pursuing a career as a nurse?
Not everyone dreads the nursing application essay. Some consider writing a strong suit. But others definitely do not. If you fall within the latter category, take heart; submitting a well-crafted, winning essay is not as difficult as it may seem.
It may help to keep in mind that a bad essay probably will not ruin your chances of becoming a nurse. But a good one could mean the difference between getting accepted into a program of your choice, at a time of your choosing, or not. That is because admissions personnel often turn to the application essay to differentiate among candidates who might otherwise seem equivalent. A good application essay can set you apart from the pack and help your application stand out.
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Euthanasia
Incorporating a Theory
Management of terminally ill patients is pretty demanding. Clinicians taking care of these patients are always passed with several questions. How can I be most helpful to this patient? What is the most appropriate manner of delivering news of a terminal diagnosis? However, the most important of all these questions that they ask themselves is how they can develop a thoughtful and reasonable plan for end of life care? It is for this reason that I chose the Lewis’s theory of change as the most crucial theory of euthanasia.
Despite proposing that euthanasia is the best approach for patients nearing their end of life, I strongly believe that health officials should equip themselves with necessary skills for managing these patients before they may request for euthanasia.
In today’s world, hospital settings are receiving a high number of patients who are put under palliative care. Most of these patients tend to engage in poly-pharmacy where they are prescribed more than four drugs. The probability of medical errors to occur in such hospital settings is high. Such errors usually lead to disturbing consequences not only on the patient but also on the nurse.
The occurrence of such errors can however be minimized significantly through the incorporation of technology that promotes patient care and saves time for the busy nurses. An example of an approach that can be used is the Bar-Coded Medication Administration (BCMA). This technology entails the use of scanning devices to contrast bar codes installed in patients with codes that display the prescribed drugs, electronically identifying the possible errors against the medical records, hence decreasing the occurrence of medication errors drastically.
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However, implementation of change in practice is usually associated with production of anxiety or fear of failure in nurses resulting in resistance to this change process. It is for this reason that Kurt Lewis’s theory of change comes in handy. Most healthcare institutions have used this model to study human behavior and how it is related to change as well as the patterns of resistance to the change.
The model determines forces that inhibit change implementation and factors that drive the change process. By identifying these two forces, health care organizations can then work towards strengthening the positive driving forces and find solutions to the impeding forces.
Kurt Lewis Theory Incorporation
This theory is made up of three stages; unfreezing phase, moving phase, and the refreezing phase.
Unfreezing phase
During this stage, round table discussions can be conducted with the aim of teasing out the supporting and impeding forces. This will be essential particularly in identifying the challenges that should be overcome. Some restraining forces in this facility may include; lack of computer experience, staff resistance against the use of computerized devices, dislike of the new system, and the cases of workarounds. BCMA is implemented successfully without instances of dangerous workarounds with maximum investment in the results.
On the other hand, the driving forces may include; enough financial investment, proper time management, support from top level managers, and potential ease of use.
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Moving Phase
This phase involves the actual change including planning and implementation of the project. Bar code implementation may require corporation from various teams such as the clinical information services, information technology (IT), pharmacy, clinical nurse educators, program managers, and administrators. A project leader should also be chosen to oversee and assess all phases of this project. Some of the challenges that can be encountered during this stage include the rediscovery of workarounds. However, they can be solved through provision of further education.
Refreeze Phase
This is the final stage. Here the there should be ongoing support of the clinicians on the frontline. All stakeholders should also be accorded technological support to a point where the change is deemed complete and all users have familiarized themselves with the technology and are comfortable with it. Once the process is fully functional, an analysis and summary of the challenges encountered, successes met, and problems encountered should be done for future reference. Any project of this magnitude can realize massive success once the Kurt Lewis theory of change is implemented.
Review of Literature
Euthanasia is a clinical practice that is carried out usually in terminally ill patients such as cancer patients who are suffering severe pain. Thienpont enlightens that, it can be conducted either through administration of a lethal injection or blocking a patient’s feeding tube (Thienpont et al, 2015). However, this subject of euthanasia has raised heated debates on whether it should be conducted or not. Math and Chaturvedi conducted a research to seek views on whether it should be executed or not.
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From their study, they learned that some proponents of euthanasia argued that terminally ill patients occupy valuable space in hospital beds. They also argued that the long term palliative care accorded to the patients is a huge waste on medical resources. However, others opposed these views saying that it is not fair to kill someone just on petty grounds that hospital beds are needed by others.
Terminally ill patients can be provided other avenues such as special hospices or homes where they can be taken care of. They even went further and stressed that if caring for the terminally ill is a waste then it would be just for the medical practitioners to deny medication to the elderly who are nearing the end of their life as well. To them, the description of hospice care as a waste of medical resources was rather harsh and families of terminally ill patients cannot agree to this statement.
According to Bauman and Dang, the best approach of managing patients with chronic diseases such as cancer or dementia is through hospice and palliative care (Bauman and Dang, 2012). Hospice care involves cooperation among several health officials from nurses, mental health professionals, clergy men, and to social workers all of whom act towards achieving a common goal, that is, providing the needs of chronically ill patients. Furthermore, they help in assisting family members who are constantly involved in the patient care process.
These officials work around the clock including weekends and holidays to offer their patients with a 24/7 care and assistance which they require desperately. According to Shah and Mushtaq, these specialists listen to and address the complaints of not only the patients but also the patient families (Shah and Mushtaq, 2014). They also provide counseling services and use advanced medical procedures and technology.
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According to Compas, et al, majority of these hospice and palliative care specialists help patients in patients’ homes so that these patients can spend the remaining time of their life with their loved ones and friends (Compas, et al, 2010). They can also assist patients at nursing homes, hospitals, and assisted living centers. These specialists are typically registered nurses (RNs) most of which hold a bachelor’s or a master’s of science degree in nursing. Their training involves
Carrying for terminally ill patients is accompanied with emotional circumstances that physicians usually find difficult to respond to (Leiva, 2010). Clinicians should therefore before be assisted from all specialties in attending their patients. Research has proven that even the most thoughtful health officials struggle with issues that arise when managing dying patients. This does not necessarily refer to assisted suicide of the patients under palliative care but rather to the overall emotional climate that encompasses this process whereby all that can be done medically has been done.
The most important attribute for such clinicians is being a straight shooter. Usually, patients and their families request that clinicians should be straight shooter. This actually means that they should use the truth when the patients and the families require it most. This may not cure or bring any form of happiness. However, being honest signifies that the clinician can be counted on to describe exactly the difficult times to be faced and offer solutions to these challenges.
Omipidam emphasized that it is important for physicians to understand that ethnicity and culture play a crucial role in management of patients in some communities (Omipidam, 2013). Therefore, physicians are advised to enquire from patients if they would like to receive information and make decisions or if the family wants to take care of the issues.
Moreover, physicians should maintain routine hospital calls. Just as it is crucial not to desert a patient to a consultant, it is equally important to ensure that regular visits to the terminally ill patients are maintained. The family as well as the patient should be well informed acutely of the frequency and the duration of the visits. The research conducted by Boudreau proved that physicians have a tendency of changing their schedules and shorten visits once the patients enter the last stages of illness (Boudreau, 2011).
One does not need to be a practitioner to correctly understand what this distance behavior has on the family and the patient. Maintaining frequency and duration of the visits will increase the understanding of the family, patient, and the physician.
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Most terminally ill patients suffer from depression (Katon, 2011). As a result, physicians should be well skilled in managing such psychological issues. Stuck and Nobel implied in their study that engagement of creative arts such as music engagement, expressive writing, and visual arts can be used to improve health outcomes (Stuckey and Nobel, 2010). This is because they help in enhancing an individual’s emotions, moods, and other psychological states.
Some of the countries that have legalized the proposed change- euthanasia include Netherlands and Belgium. Pereira ascertains that one of the main reasons for undertaking this policy was to relieve pain and suffering among terminally ill patients. However, Ncayiyana opposes this practice citing reasons that it does not show dignity and respect to human life (Ncayiyana, 2012).
The author offers alternative solutions saying that improvements on medication have been done to promote patients quality of life and ensure that their deaths are as humane as possible. The scholar argues that a person in sedation state still is still biologically alive and has the right to live until his/her natural death.
In some cases, patients request for euthanasia. However, Schüklenk, confirms that several organizations such as the European Court for Human Rights have since ruled that no one has a recognized right to die whether with the aid of a third person or a public authority (Schüklenk, et al, 2011). He debates that if people were given the right to take their life, then people that are critically injured or the very old would have been compelled to request their death.
Hickman and Douglas oppose the idea that relatives can call for euthanasia to spare themselves the miseries of watching their loved ones go through agony and severe pain (Hickman and Douglas, 2010). Nevertheless, they have no right whatsoever to end life of the patients despite them being relatives.
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A survey conducted by Bennett et al on 200 doctors and 400 nurses, indicated that almost 94% of the nurses and 95% of the doctors viewed hospice care to be very important for patients with life-threatening conditions. Almost all these doctors and nurses wanted hospice care to be made readily accessible. They also agreed that the general public should have more information regarding hospice palliative care and end-of-life care training should be fundamental in medical and nursing education (Bennett et al, 2010).
However, the surprising fact from this survey was that 72% of the doctors and 28% of the nurses revealed that medical professionals do not enough concerning palliative care. This indicated the existing gap of knowledge that is used in support terminally ill patients. According to Bennett et al, basic medical education is not sufficient for hospice care training.
The environment, values, and culture in clinical settings and other places of care should encourage and promote greater openness and discussions about end of life. Policy makers in the field of healthcare should also seek ways of supporting and creating more opportunities and avenues for nurses to employ in their practice of hospice care in whichever specialty they are in.
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Bennett, H. D., Coleman, E. A., Parry, C., Bodenheimer, T., & Chen, E. H. (2010). Health coaching for patients with chronic illnesses. Fam Pract Manag, 17(5), 24-29.
Boudreau, J. D. (2011). Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia: Can you even imagine teaching medical students how to end their patients’ lives? The Permanente Journal, 15(4), 79–84.
Compas, B. E., Jaser, S. S., Dunn, M. J., & Rodriguez, E. M. (2012). Coping with chronic illness in childhood and adolescence. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 455–480.
J. Katon, W. (2011). Epidemiology and treatment of depression in patients with chronic medical illness. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 13(1), 7–23.
Leiva, R. A. (2010). Death, suffering, and euthanasia. Canadian Family Physician, 56(6), 528–530.
Math, S. B., & Chaturvedi, S. K. (2012). Euthanasia: Right to life vs right to die. The Indian Journal of Medical Research, 136(6), 899–902.
Ncayiyana, D. (2012). Euthanasia: No dignity in death in absence of an ethos of respect for human life. The South African Medical Journal, 102(6), n.p.
Omipidam, B. A. (2013). Palliative care: An alternative to euthanasia. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, 3(2), 229.
Pereira, J. (2011). Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls. Current Oncology, 18(2), 38–45.
Schüklenk, U., Delden, J. J. M., Downie, J., Mclean, S. A. M., Upshur, R., & Weinstock, D. (2011). End-of-life decision-making in Canada: The report by the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on end-of-life decision-making. Bioethics, 25(1), 1–4.
Shah, A., & Mushtaq, A. (2014). The right to live or die? A perspective on voluntary euthanasia. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 30(5), 1159–1160.
Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: A review of current literature. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 254–263.
Thienpont, L. Verhofstadt, N., Loon, T., Distelmans, W., Audenaert, K., & Deyn, P. (2015). Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: A retrospective, descriptive study. BMJ Open, 5(7), n.p.
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Impression of nursing informatics
1. Discuss and describe your impression of nursing informatics (medical or generic informatics and nursing informatics) before entering this class.
My nursing practice has mainly focused in family based patient care. This is a complex activity as one has to find the adequate support that will ensure that the extended care team is involved adequately in addressing the patient needs. For this reason, I have always understood the importance of informatics in healthcare.
Through this course, I have just realised that I have been applying the concept of healthcare informatics as blanket to cover all the informatics within the healthcare system. As a family nurse, I have experiences or at least interacted with healthcare systems such as registration processes of the patient, laboratory systems, pharmacy systems, and billing systems (Matney et al., 2012).
2. Compare (also describe and discuss) how your Impression of nursing informatics is to your impression now (after entering the class, completing the readings and the lesson).
There is a thin line between nursing informatics and healthcare informatics. From this discussion, I have learnt that the two are completely different aspects of informatics. For instance; healthcare informatics is business focused, which focuses in improving and complying with regulations of healthcare facility finances. Therefore, the sole aim of integrating information technology is aimed at improving the organizational operation and the staffing demands.
On the other hand, nursing informatics is patient focused, and relies in gathering, identification and management of data through information technology to improve patient safety and clinical outcomes. Understanding the differences is important to enable nurses understand the standards and scope of practice in nursing informatics, which is often confused by many (including me) with healthcare informatics (Jonh et al., 2012).
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3. Discuss and describe how/why your change in impression came about (this part should be cited appropriately, and probably fairly heavily, as you are showing/proving/demonstrating how your impression changed).
Therefore, through this lesson, it has become crystal clear to me the effectiveness of the nursing informatics in healthcare as it facilitates the standardization and simplification of processes, enhancing the nurse work flow efficiently (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). For instance, there is this one time I was handling a geriatric patient, and the patient medication was not clearly indicated in her data sheet.
Fortunately, our healthcare facility had just implemented the barcode medication administration systems (BMAS); and through this, I was able to obtain the standard medication that was appropriate- otherwise would have been a potential source of medication error (Jonh et al., 2012). From this, I understood that these systems are vital in ensuring patient safety and patient outcome.
Through the exploration of nursing informatics concepts, the emergence of the information system, its role in safety science and patient improvement in healthcare has shaped and had a significant impact in enhancing my core values within this professional. In my career prospects, I will specifically seek to deepen my capacity as a nurse to improve nursing profession through the domain of informatics (Matney et al., 2012).
Impression of nursing informatics
References
Johnson, J. E., Veneziano, T., Malast, T., Mastro, K., Moran, A., Mulligan, L., & Smith, A. L. (2012). Nursing’s future: What’s the message? Nursing Management, 43(7), 36?41. doi:10.1097/01.NUMA.0000415493.20578.f2
Matney, S., Brewster, P. J., Sward, K. A.,Cloyes, K. G., & Staggers, N. (2011). Philosophical approaches to the nursing informatics data-information-knowledge-wisdom framework. Advances in Nursing Science, 34(1), 6?18.
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Patient satisfaction from Quality Improvement
Constant Quality improvement and patient contentment focuses on activities conducted within the healthcare institution to ensure that health care is patient-centered and good health is acknowledged as an integral part of the medical evaluation. Nursing leadership and management must put into consideration the quality and satisfaction of their patients and the health care as a whole.
Continuous Quality Improvement and Patient satisfaction are established as an efficient partnership between the medical practitioner, their patients and family. They ensure that patients are granted the standardized medical attention, their needs and want are respected and that they acquire the best support and direction in making a decision and practicing medical care. Every nurse leader and manager must consider directing their effort towards establishing quality care and patient satisfaction (McFadden, et al., 2014).
Nursing leaders and managers have different responsibilities and roles when it comes to ensuring continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction. Subsequently, when focusing on continuous quality improvement this paper will concentrate on factors that ensure health care services are offered at a quality standard and the health environment is well established and cared for effectively. On the other hand, patient satisfaction is based on how patient receive quality service and care. It is structured to ensure that staff care and patient care are well established and maintained in any healthcare institution.
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In light of this continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction, the essay will offer a comparison between nursing leaders and managers through supportive theories, rationale, principles, skills and roles.
Comparison between Health Manager and Nursing Leader
Dissimilarity
Nursing leaders and nursing managers have different roles, responsibility, and skills when it comes to ensuring continuous quality improvement and patient safety. Their distinction can be defined through how each corresponds to their department in ensuring quality health and patient care. While nursing leaders acquire their roles through their ability to lead, influence and motivate others to perform better, managers are appointed into their positions officially and hence play the role of overseeing activities and processes within the facility (Meehan, 2012).
In regard of Continuous Quality improvement and patient satisfaction, nursing leaders are likely to approach the matter of constant eminence development as well as patient satisfaction in distinct ways. One of the basic dissimilarities between nursing leaders and managers can be attributed to their roles. Nursing managers are responsible for direct patient care. They ensure that all the patients in a medical institution attain the medical attention and care they deserve by ensuring that all protocols are observed and that required resources are availed.
On the contrary, leaders play a motivational and individual development role, with an objective of encouraging others to perform their duties effectively. They keep vigilance on the issues and concerns of their patients to ensure that their safety and care is given priority. Through nursing leaders, staff can see quality improvement and patient satisfaction as a moral issue that will guarantee the happiness of patients and thus work towards achieving this objective. This is as opposed to managers who expect quality improvement and satisfaction through following set rules and expectations (Thompson, 2006).
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Nursing leaders play the role of streamlining the institution’s workforce as well as ensuring that the resources allocated are effectively used to achieve the organization’s objectives. This means that to ensure continuous quality improvement, nursing leaders would work towards ensuring that available resources are optimized to bring out maximum impact and enhance patient satisfaction (McFadden, et al, 2014).
Managers on the other hand would promote continuous quality improvement and satisfaction by promoting resource allocation and providing an appropriate working environment. They are in charge of medical staff and patient welfare at large in ensuring continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction. Moreover, it is the duty of the manager to offer the nursing leader a viable platform through which they can conduct quality service to their patients. Thus, the manager plays an overall duty in ensuring health quality and patient care compared to a nursing leader whose primary focus is to their patient health and concern (Fleishman, 2002).
Manager skills ensure continuous quality improvement and patient safety through striking a balance coordinating resources, financial matters, and personnel in healthcare. Furthermore, the managers are responsible for ensuring goals and objective such as ensuring quality patient care are achieved. On the other hand, the nursing leader exhibits different responsibilities and skills in establishing continuous quality improvement and patient safety.
Nursing leaders must establish good communication and interpersonal relationships and expertise with their patient, staff, and other clients of the medical facilities. They are also responsible for empowering, motivating, inspiring and encouraging other towards achieving and establishing quality service and care.
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On the contrast, it can be established that managers envision the future for medical operation and create a path towards productivity and efficiency. The manager is in charge of growth and opportunities in healthcare to ensure new medical staffing are accounted and quality service in rendered throughout the season. However, nursing leaders are different as they do not have the power figure but can envisage socio-adaptive component that helps ensure a good relationship between the patients and the clinical staff. The nursing leader is task oriented and conducted their duty with the aim of offering their patients and clients a favorable environment.
Similarity
Despite their numerous dissimilarities, nursing leaders and managers share some equal responsibility and characteristics to establish continuous quality improvement and patient satisfaction. Both of them are responsible for ensuring job satisfaction for their clients. Managers can act as motivators and risk takers same applies to nursing leaders who take risk and chances to provide quality improvement and patient satisfactory (Thompson, 2006).
Additionally, managers, just like nursing leaders, are enforcing work unity and envision goals. They all strive towards cohesion at the health institution and encourage mutual tolerance in health care to boost quality and satisfactory service. Their duty is to maintain a conducive working environment comply with the various demand and obligation in ensuring continuous quality improvement and patient satisfactory is retained in the health care.
Both managers and nursing leaders are a representative of each group or unit they lead and hence act as role models. They are therefore expected to possess qualities that do not contradict their position and value. They should maintain a high standard of professionalism that is acceptable within their jurisdiction and adhere to different roles, responsibility, and accountability.
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Personal and Professional Philosophy of Nursing
The most appropriate personal and professional philosophy than can be considered in this case is accountability. Nursing is a calling and is held to high professional standards and obligations hence the need to show a high level of accountability (Meehan, 2012). Nevertheless, when dealing with a patient, nurses, and medical practitioners take their lives in their own hands, making them responsible for any outcome and consequences that their patients might face.
Hence, it is recommended for a nurse to exhibit a high standard of accountability. They should not be limited from performing their duties with utmost care and accountability based on self-esteem, belief or negativity.
Accountability is suitable for personal leadership skills as it helps to build self-responsibility, improve tolerance and acceptance. It also fosters competence, determination and goal orientation within an individual. Being accountable is also being responsible for others. This means one is able to take the risk for the sake of saving and helping others.
It is also suitable for personal leadership skills as it improves personal relationships, communication skills and fosters social engagement with other people. Accountability can therefore be perceived as effective in promoting personal and public relationships with other people in the healthcare institution.
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References
Fleishman, R. (2002). The RAF method for regulation, assessment, follow-up and continuous improvement of quality of care: Conceptual framework. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 15(6), 303-310. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/229598851?accountid=45049
McFadden, K. L., Lee, J. Y., Gowen, Charles R., I.,II, & Sharp, B. M. (2014). Linking quality improvement practices to knowledge management capabilities. The Quality Management Journal, 21(1), 42-58. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1503666127?accountid=45049
Meehan, T. C. (2012). The Careful Nursing philosophy and professional practice model. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 21(19/20), 2905-2916. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04214.x
Thompson, J. M. (2006). Nurse managers’ participation in management training and nursing staffs’ job satisfaction and retention (Order No. 3230066). Available from ABI/INFORM Complete. (304937671). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304937671?accountid=45049
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Stress Management Training and Home Visit Scheduling System
Introduction
Burnout has been identified as one of the main factors impacting the performance of home healthcare nurses. This mostly results from long working hours and many patients to attend to, such that they end up being too exhausted and stressed out. The nature of work that nurses do is also exhausting, given that it involves standing and running around all day, with insignificant breaks between one assignment and the other.
While the straightforward solution would be to increase the number of nurses so that the work is manageable, this may not feasible due to economic pressures, hence the need to come up with strategies to help the nurses manage their current situation better. This paper is a discussion of the impact of conducting stress management training and implementing a home care visit scheduling system to reduce burnout among nurses.
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Discussion
Stress management training
A stressed nurse is likely to have low productivity and energy levels and thereby more prone to burnout. Stress management training would be highly effective in helping nurses cope with everyday challenges and ensuring that they live a balanced life. Abel, Abel and Smith (2012), note that a majority of people are overwhelmed by stress because they are incapable of making proper decisions and plans to address their daily stressors.
Training would help the nurses in identifying their sources of stress and how these can be managed to make life easier. Training for example could help them learn how to prioritize issues and thus make proper personal plans based on the time available to them.
When people experience symptoms of stress including constant headaches, poor concentration, forgetfulness and insomnia among other signs, there is a significant likelihood that they are not aware that they are suffering from stress. Stress management training would provide nurses with an opportunity to understand stress, its causes and effects (Dhobale, 2009). This way, it is possible for the nurses to evaluate themselves and establish the stressors in their lives so as to deal with them.
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Knowledge of daily stressors ensures that they can be effectively addressed using various strategies in order to relieve the affected person (Dhobale, 2009). Once the causes of stress have been identified, it is easier to anticipate them and make necessary plans to ensure that they do not overwhelm the nurse again.
This in itself addresses the issue of burnout because absence of stress means that the individual has more energy to execute their duties. Dhobale (2009) notes that after training, self-management of stress through psychological techniques, physical exercise, breathing exercise, massage and indulgence in hobbies among other things is likely to be witnessed.
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Poor time management is a leading factor in triggering stressors as noted by Abel, Abel and Smith (2012). This is a common problem among home healthcare nurses and can be a major cause of stress. It is difficult for nurses to determine how much time they will spend with a patient because of lack of a properly laid out time plan. Stress management training places major focus on time management as a strategy to reduce stress.
Through this training, nurses would be taught how to schedule their home visits and how to plan their time to ensure that they only take the necessary amount of time to attend to a client. This will ensure that the nurses attend to more patients with lesser time, thus reducing burnout to a great extent. The fact that the nurse is likely to have adequate time for non-work activities in order to create a proper work-life balance leads to a reduction in the occurrence of burnout.
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Stress management training for nurses is not only useful to them but it can also help close acquaintances and colleagues. Milliken (2007) notes that the knowledge gained from the training may be passed on to other people, who would also benefit from better stress management. Assuming that the beneficiaries are mostly other nurses, the result would be a less burnt out workforce.
Home visit scheduling program
Designing a system that effectively schedules home visits would play a great role in reducing burnout among nurses. In the absence of a well designed system, nurses design their own schedules and often maintain unpredictable hours (Hall, 2011). In most cases, home visits are not well planned and nurses mostly end up spending so much time in one home and hence rescheduling consequent visits. They also have to travel frequently to keep up with the visits, hence increasing exhaustion.
Furthermore, a majority of nurses do not have a structured home visit plan to guide the visit and this often results in poor time planning (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014). A system to schedule home visits would clearly indicate the number of homes to be visited each day, the number of hours to be spent in each house based on client needs and the issues to be addressed by the nurse during the visit. This would save time and thus reduce burnout.
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A scheduling system for home visits would ensure better coordination between healthcare workers and thus reduce conflicting schedules and information gap. Where there are different healthcare workers attending to the same patient, there may be conflict of schedules and thus difficulty in coordinating services (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003). In the event that a nurse finds a patient being attended by another healthcare worker, they are forced to wait for them to finish with the patient or postpone the session and thus end up wasting a lot of time (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014).
Due to the fact that each healthcare worker makes their own notes which are rarely shared because they are made on paper, it is difficult to track reports of other healthcare workers attending to the patient, which may bring confusion. It also becomes difficult for synchronous communication to be initiated because health workers cannot trace other healthcare workers’ schedules to know when they are available (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003).
Such kind of communication breakdown can be addressed through the use of a scheduling system, which ensures that each healthcare worker logs in information concerning their sessions with the patient. Through the system, it is easy to follow schedules made by other healthcare workers, such that nurses can plan the most appropriate time to see clients to avoid time wastage, as well as identify the best time for synchronous communication (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003). Improved efficiency is not only expected to increase productivity but it also reduces the probability of burnout among nurses.
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The home visits scheduling system is bound to improve efficiency in terms of number of homes visited per day and also save nurses long exhausting hours of travel (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014). The system would cluster homes according to location in order to plan for effective travel. Visits would be scheduled in such a way that homes in the same area are clustered for same day visits as opposed to visiting different areas the same day. This would reduce the travelling time and also reduce exhaustion, consequently reducing burnout.
Considering the fact that the system has all the information about clients in one place, the nurse can easily retrieve information and make well-versed decisions based on the information. This works better than using client files because not only is the information easily retrievable, the nurse can make updates and easily compare notes for different clients. Such information can guide the nurse on areas of care to concentrate on, based on client history. Availability of information at the click of a button would go a long way in reducing burnout among nurses and thus enhance productivity.
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Conclusion
It is undeniable based on the discussion that stress management training and introduction of a home visit scheduling system would be effective in reducing burnout among home healthcare nurses. Notably, training nurses on stress management will ensure that they are more aware of their daily stressors, why they occur and how to deal with them. Time management taught during this training is also highly important in promoting efficiency and reducing burnout.
The home visit scheduling system would make it easier for nurses to plan visits, avoid conflict visits and promote communication synchronization. Through this system, visits would be well planned and there would be reduced rescheduling of visits. This essentially translates into less burnout by the nurses. The stress management training and home visit scheduling would therefore impact home healthcare nurse burnout in a significant manner.
Hall, R. (2011). Handbook of Healthcare System Scheduling. New York, Springer Science & Business Media.
Mankowska, D., Meisel, F., & Bierwirth, C. (2014). The home health care routing and scheduling problem with interdependent services. Health Care Management Science, 17(1), 15-30. doi:10.1007/s10729-013-9243-1. Retrieved from eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=12&sid=a576b81a-91da-4e90-bca3-a6f0a26ae995%40sessionmgr114&hid=111
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During this practicum, a 25 year old female presented to the healthcare facility with complains of severe cramp pain that occurs about one week before her menses, during the menstrual cycle and a week after the cycle ends. The patient complains that her menstrual cycles is irregular, and gets heavy periods with some clots. The patient reported to the clinic due to sharp pain that radiated from the chest. The patient had lived with this condition for 12 years. She has been managing the disease using alternative tradition medicines, which has not been effective.
Review of the system was conducted and laboratory tests were performed (urinalysis, urine culture, pregnancy test and wet prep). The differential diagnosis identified included amenorrhea, endometriosis, and ovarian cysts without explanation. Ovarian cysts were suspected due to presence of pelvic pain before the onset of period. However, this is not likely because the patient did not complain of fever and vomiting. Amenorrhea is suspected due to presence of pelvic pain. However, this is not likely as the key indicator of amenorrhea is absence of menses (Domino, Baldor, Golding, 2014).
To make a definitive diagnosis physical test was performed. Under the supervision of my preceptor, I conducted a pelvic exam. This included palpating pelvis areas to check abnormalities such as cysts and scars. The pelvic exam was negative. An ultrasound was requested to capture the image of the reproductive organs. The results indicated that the patient was suffering from endometriosis (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 2011).
Treatment made included pain relive medication to help manage the painful cramps. The patient was also given Lo Loestrin Fe which has been found to be effective in management of pain. The increase and decrease of hormones during the menstrual cycle makes the endometrial implants to thicken.
Using this hormone therapy, it slows down the growth which prevents the implantation of the endometrial tissue. However, the patient was educated that although these medications manage the pain, they are not a permanent fix for this health complication. The symptoms can reoccur after stopping the treatment (CDC, 2013).
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The patient was also advised on ways to manage pain using home remedies. This includes the use of heating pad to relax the pelvic muscles, which helps in reducing pain. OTC non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Motrin IB. The patient is advised to eat health and exercise regularly as it helps improve the pain (Buttaro et al., 2013).
During this practicum, I have learnt that issue of endometriosis is poorly understood in the society. This is probably because of the common myth of “etiquette menstruation” where the society believes that menstruation is a private affair and must not be discussed in public. Most of women conceal their suffering, which makes them to suffer in silence. As advanced nurse practitioner, it is our responsibility to raise awareness on endometriosis to encourage the affected persons to speak up, and seek medication early (CDC, 2013).
During the research, I also realized the common modalities between ovary cysts, amenorrhea and endometriosis. This includes the similarity in the clinical manifestation, test and diagnosis procedures and treatment. In these three reproductive systems disorders, they are clinically manifested by presence of pelvic pain before the onset and after menstrual cycle.
The test diagnosis of these disorders includes ultrasound, Pregnancy tests, urinalysis and urine culture. In management of the disease, most of them are managed using OTC pain killers, hormone therapy or invasive methods. Therefore, I need to research more on these reproductive disorders to ensure that I deliver effective care when serving the affected community (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2011).
References
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2011). Guideline for adolescent health care (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://www.acog.org
Buttaro, T., Trybulski, J., Bailey, P., & Sandberg-Cook, J. (2013). Primary Care, 4th Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2013). Incidence, prevalence, and cost of sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Retrieved from http://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/13174
Domino, F. J.; Baldor, R.A.; Golding, J (Ed.). (2014). The 5-minute clinical consult standard 2015 (23rd ed, Kindle Edition). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
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Reducing Nurse Burnout
Introduction
Burnout has been identified as one of the main factors impacting the performance of home healthcare nurses. This mostly results from long working hours and many patients to attend to, such that they end up being too exhausted and stressed out. The nature of work that nurses do is also exhausting, given that it involves standing and running around all day, with insignificant breaks between one assignment and the other.
While the straightforward solution would be to increase the number of nurses so that the work is manageable, this may not feasible due to economic pressures, hence the need to come up with strategies to help the nurses manage their current situation better. This paper is a discussion of the impact of conducting stress management training and implementing a home care visit scheduling system to reduce burnout among nurses.
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Discussion
Stress management training
A stressed nurse is likely to have low productivity and energy levels and thereby more prone to burnout. Stress management training would be highly effective in helping nurses cope with everyday challenges and ensuring that they live a balanced life. Abel, Abel and Smith (2012), note that a majority of people are overwhelmed by stress because they are incapable of making proper decisions and plans to address their daily stressors.
Training would help the nurses in identifying their sources of stress and how these can be managed to make life easier. Training for example could help them learn how to prioritize issues and thus make proper personal plans based on the time available to them.
When people experience symptoms of stress including constant headaches, poor concentration, forgetfulness and insomnia among other signs, there is a significant likelihood that they are not aware that they are suffering from stress. Stress management training would provide nurses with an opportunity to understand stress, its causes and effects (Dhobale, 2009). This way, it is possible for the nurses to evaluate themselves and establish the stressors in their lives so as to deal with them.
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Knowledge of daily stressors ensures that they can be effectively addressed using various strategies in order to relieve the affected person (Dhobale, 2009). Once the causes of stress have been identified, it is easier to anticipate them and make necessary plans to ensure that they do not overwhelm the nurse again.
This in itself addresses the issue of burnout because absence of stress means that the individual has more energy to execute their duties. Dhobale (2009) notes that after training, self-management of stress through psychological techniques, physical exercise, breathing exercise, massage and indulgence in hobbies among other things is likely to be witnessed.
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Poor time management is a leading factor in triggering stressors as noted by Abel, Abel and Smith (2012). This is a common problem among home healthcare nurses and can be a major cause of stress. It is difficult for nurses to determine how much time they will spend with a patient because of lack of a properly laid out time plan. Stress management training places major focus on time management as a strategy to reduce stress.
Through this training, nurses would be taught how to schedule their home visits and how to plan their time to ensure that they only take the necessary amount of time to attend to a client. This will ensure that the nurses attend to more patients with lesser time, thus reducing burnout to a great extent. The fact that the nurse is likely to have adequate time for non-work activities in order to create a proper work-life balance leads to a reduction in the occurrence of burnout.
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Stress management training for nurses is not only useful to them but it can also help close acquaintances and colleagues. Milliken (2007) notes that the knowledge gained from the training may be passed on to other people, who would also benefit from better stress management. Assuming that the beneficiaries are mostly other nurses, the result would be a less burnt out workforce.
Home visit scheduling program
Designing a system that effectively schedules home visits would play a great role in reducing burnout among nurses. In the absence of a well designed system, nurses design their own schedules and often maintain unpredictable hours (Hall, 2011). In most cases, home visits are not well planned and nurses mostly end up spending so much time in one home and hence rescheduling consequent visits. They also have to travel frequently to keep up with the visits, hence increasing exhaustion.
Furthermore, a majority of nurses do not have a structured home visit plan to guide the visit and this often results in poor time planning (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014). A system to schedule home visits would clearly indicate the number of homes to be visited each day, the number of hours to be spent in each house based on client needs and the issues to be addressed by the nurse during the visit. This would save time and thus reduce burnout.
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A scheduling system for home visits would ensure better coordination between healthcare workers and thus reduce conflicting schedules and information gap. Where there are different healthcare workers attending to the same patient, there may be conflict of schedules and thus difficulty in coordinating services (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003). In the event that a nurse finds a patient being attended by another healthcare worker, they are forced to wait for them to finish with the patient or postpone the session and thus end up wasting a lot of time (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014).
Due to the fact that each healthcare worker makes their own notes which are rarely shared because they are made on paper, it is difficult to track reports of other healthcare workers attending to the patient, which may bring confusion. It also becomes difficult for synchronous communication to be initiated because health workers cannot trace other healthcare workers’ schedules to know when they are available (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003).
Such kind of communication breakdown can be addressed through the use of a scheduling system, which ensures that each healthcare worker logs in information concerning their sessions with the patient. Through the system, it is easy to follow schedules made by other healthcare workers, such that nurses can plan the most appropriate time to see clients to avoid time wastage, as well as identify the best time for synchronous communication (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003). Improved efficiency is not only expected to increase productivity but it also reduces the probability of burnout among nurses.
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The home visits scheduling system is bound to improve efficiency in terms of number of homes visited per day and also save nurses long exhausting hours of travel (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014). The system would cluster homes according to location in order to plan for effective travel. Visits would be scheduled in such a way that homes in the same area are clustered for same day visits as opposed to visiting different areas the same day. This would reduce the travelling time and also reduce exhaustion, consequently reducing burnout.
Considering the fact that the system has all the information about clients in one place, the nurse can easily retrieve information and make well-versed decisions based on the information. This works better than using client files because not only is the information easily retrievable, the nurse can make updates and easily compare notes for different clients. Such information can guide the nurse on areas of care to concentrate on, based on client history. Availability of information at the click of a button would go a long way in reducing burnout among nurses and thus enhance productivity.
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Conclusion
It is undeniable based on the discussion that stress management training and introduction of a home visit scheduling system would be effective in reducing burnout among home healthcare nurses. Notably, training nurses on stress management will ensure that they are more aware of their daily stressors, why they occur and how to deal with them. Time management taught during this training is also highly important in promoting efficiency and reducing burnout.
The home visit scheduling system would make it easier for nurses to plan visits, avoid conflict visits and promote communication synchronization. Through this system, visits would be well planned and there would be reduced rescheduling of visits. This essentially translates into less burnout by the nurses. The stress management training and home visit scheduling would therefore impact home healthcare nurse burnout in a significant manner.
Hall, R. (2011). Handbook of Healthcare System Scheduling. New York, Springer Science & Business Media.
Mankowska, D., Meisel, F., & Bierwirth, C. (2014). The home health care routing and scheduling problem with interdependent services. Health Care Management Science, 17(1), 15-30. doi:10.1007/s10729-013-9243-1. Retrieved from eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=12&sid=a576b81a-91da-4e90-bca3-a6f0a26ae995%40sessionmgr114&hid=111
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee Initiative
The work of the initiative
Based on Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee initiative, healthcare reforms that are effective and elemental, and considers the need for sensible and quality care need comprehensive guidance, insight, as well as information on the nursing roles required in the future. With this, it would be ultimately possible to ensure the delivery of ideal quality in healthcare. The need for changes in the various healthcare professions cannot be ignored if the essential healthcare reforms are to be effective.
This judgment by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Committee initiative was based on the awareness that nurses have a very fundamental obligation of offering front-line services (Mason et al., 2011). In addition, they constitute the hugest healthcare workforce percent, and with considerably deep roles also involving the prevention of major medical errors. Following this judgment, the committee decided that in future, healthcare as well as nursing were required to collaborate.
This required developing a nursing workforce with the essential skill competencies and that met the capacity in numbers. This would go a long way in helping meet both the present and future needs in healthcare. The committee also had the responsibility of addressing the bottlenecks faced by nurses in their practice, in addition to the present and projected nursing shortage. As such, there can be promotion of sufficient and safe healthcare collaborate.
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Considering that the educational opportunities are at the moment not adequate, there is a great need that they be increased, which would ensure that more nurses receive post-licensure exposure and training. In matters such as nursing education, retention, recruitment, and upcoming technologies, there is a need for novel solutions collaborate (Mason et al., 2011).
Ultimately, the role of the committee led to a landmark report where there was indication of fundamental initiatives for nursing in the future. An agenda and blueprint for action were the impact, and public as well as institutional policies would be needed at different levels. It would be necessary for nurses to acquire varying skills and knowledge for efficiency in various care settings. Different shareholders in addition to stakeholders would be needed (Mason et al., 2011).
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IOM’s significance
In this, there is a detailed scrutiny of the nursing workforce. Basically, the recommendations made in the report reflect the fundamental intertwine between the diverse and slowly changing population of patients in various life spans, and the developing requirements of the actions of the workforce. The report asserts that nurses are well empowered to make major contributions to healthcare quality’s improvement in the United States.
Hence, it is important that they are sufficiently empowered, which would promote efficient, safe, and quality practice. The need for proper education as well as training cannot be underrated for this to be a reality. The education should be superior and encompassing of flawless academic evolution for the nurses to be equipped with the needed levels of education and training collaborate.
For the US healthcare system to be redesigned effectively, all nurses and experts should collaborate. More information infrastructure and detailed data collection are necessary for efficient workforce planning and policy making (Mason et al., 2011). Essentially, the report can be seen as a framework through which the delivery system would be overseen, in addition to the changes in the nursing profession. The need to collaborate with various stakeholders could not be ignored.
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State-based action coalitions’ role
The state-based action coalitions’ significance as the driving forces for Campaign for Action cannot be ignored (Isaacs & Knickman, 2014). Their aim is promoting sustainable and long-standing changes at local, regional, and state levels. Their foundation is the CCNA and RWJF. Hence, they can create and implement unique arrays of regional goals as well as campaigns as suggested in the IOM recommendations.
State-based action coalitions and Campaign for Action’s goals
The goals advancement is dependent on the reality that they are made up of varying stakeholders, which ensures that different matters can be evaluated in detail (Isaacs & Knickman, 2014). Thereby, they have the ability and mandate to capture realistic and relevant practices, identify appropriate replicable models, identify research needs, and track the learnt lessons.
Initiatives of Texas Action Coalition
Texas Action Coalition strongly asserts that the challenges in systems of health ought to be addressed from the basis. In connection to this, the state has taken up a leadership responsibility of ensuring that the expertise as well as the experience of nurses are used to the level best for patient care improvements. Moreover, it is necessary that nurses use their education and training maximally. There is also a statement on the measures for gathering data from the workforce. Nurses also ought to be heard and possess more solid training as well as education.
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Advancing the nursing profession
The initiatives promote nurses’ education and well-built training. As a result, nurses are empowered adequately, which better places them to offer the best considering their education in addition to training levels. Moreover, the initiatives ensure that experts in healthcare have superior interprofessional collaboration for coordination and improvements in healthcare. They also ensure bigger ranks in leadership, which promotes participation in the management teams, boardrooms, as well as policy debates (Battié, 2013).
Barriers to advancement
Often, there is inefficient advancement because of inappropriate allocation of resources, which is the major barrier. Second, some of the stakeholders are reluctant to make contributions as needed, and this can be traced back to failing to include them from the start. With ineffective communication on everything that is going on, some stakeholders may feel as if they are not that important, which makes them reluctant to contribute. This is a major reason why failure is experienced.
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How nursing advocates can overcome them
There is a great need for the nursing advocates to stress on the significance of collaboration as well as highlighting the vital link between healthcare and the nursing profession. In addition, whenever there are some intended changes, all the stakeholders should be included from the word go so that they can be aware of the changes and contribute as needed.
It is also important to first assess the available resources so that allocation can be based on how urgently they are needed and their availability. This would go a long way in promoting efficiency and ensuring that quality and safety are not compromised.
The foregoing discussion has established that nursing is really important in the healthcare sector and that changes are needed based on various transformations in the sector. This can ensure that the services being offered meet the needs of patients and employees. Therefore, the relevant committees should keep ensuring that the needed changes are being implemented for efficiency.
Isaacs, S. L., & Knickman, J. R. (2014). To Improve Health and Health Care: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Anthology. Wiley.
Mason, D. J., Isaacs, S. L., Colby, D. C., & Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine. (2011).
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Impact of Stress Management Training and Home Visit Scheduling System on Reducing Nurse Burnout
Introduction
Burnout has been identified as one of the main factors impacting the performance of home healthcare nurses. This mostly results from long working hours and many patients to attend to, such that they end up being too exhausted and stressed out. The nature of work that nurses do is also exhausting, given that it involves standing and running around all day, with insignificant breaks between one assignment and the other.
While the straightforward solution would be to increase the number of nurses so that the work is manageable, this may not feasible due to economic pressures, hence the need to come up with strategies to help the nurses manage their current situation better. This paper is a discussion of the impact of conducting stress management training and implementing a home care visit scheduling system to reduce burnout among nurses.
Discussion
Stress management training
A stressed nurse is likely to have low productivity and energy levels and thereby more prone to burnout. Stress management training would be highly effective in helping nurses cope with everyday challenges and ensuring that they live a balanced life. Abel, Abel and Smith (2012), note that a majority of people are overwhelmed by stress because they are incapable of making proper decisions and plans to address their daily stressors.
Training would help the nurses in identifying their sources of stress and how these can be managed to make life easier. Training for example could help them learn how to prioritize issues and thus make proper personal plans based on the time available to them.
When people experience symptoms of stress including constant headaches, poor concentration, forgetfulness and insomnia among other signs, there is a significant likelihood that they are not aware that they are suffering from stress. Stress management training would provide nurses with an opportunity to understand stress, its causes and effects (Dhobale, 2009). This way, it is possible for the nurses to evaluate themselves and establish the stressors in their lives so as to deal with them.
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Knowledge of daily stressors ensures that they can be effectively addressed using various strategies in order to relieve the affected person (Dhobale, 2009). Once the causes of stress have been identified, it is easier to anticipate them and make necessary plans to ensure that they do not overwhelm the nurse again.
This in itself addresses the issue of burnout because absence of stress means that the individual has more energy to execute their duties. Dhobale (2009) notes that after training, self-management of stress through psychological techniques, physical exercise, breathing exercise, massage and indulgence in hobbies among other things is likely to be witnessed.
Poor time management is a leading factor in triggering stressors as noted by Abel, Abel and Smith (2012). This is a common problem among home healthcare nurses and can be a major cause of stress. It is difficult for nurses to determine how much time they will spend with a patient because of lack of a properly laid out time plan. Stress management training places major focus on time management as a strategy to reduce stress.
Through this training, nurses would be taught how to schedule their home visits and how to plan their time to ensure that they only take the necessary amount of time to attend to a client. This will ensure that the nurses attend to more patients with lesser time, thus reducing burnout to a great extent. The fact that the nurse is likely to have adequate time for non-work activities in order to create a proper work-life balance leads to a reduction in the occurrence of burnout.
Stress management training for nurses is not only useful to them but it can also help close acquaintances and colleagues. Milliken (2007) notes that the knowledge gained from the training may be passed on to other people, who would also benefit from better stress management. Assuming that the beneficiaries are mostly other nurses, the result would be a less burnt out workforce.
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Home visit scheduling program
Designing a system that effectively schedules home visits would play a great role in reducing burnout among nurses. In the absence of a well designed system, nurses design their own schedules and often maintain unpredictable hours (Hall, 2011). In most cases, home visits are not well planned and nurses mostly end up spending so much time in one home and hence rescheduling consequent visits. They also have to travel frequently to keep up with the visits, hence increasing exhaustion.
Furthermore, a majority of nurses do not have a structured home visit plan to guide the visit and this often results in poor time planning (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014). A system to schedule home visits would clearly indicate the number of homes to be visited each day, the number of hours to be spent in each house based on client needs and the issues to be addressed by the nurse during the visit. This would save time and thus reduce burnout.
A scheduling system for home visits would ensure better coordination between healthcare workers and thus reduce conflicting schedules and information gap. Where there are different healthcare workers attending to the same patient, there may be conflict of schedules and thus difficulty in coordinating services (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003). In the event that a nurse finds a patient being attended by another healthcare worker, they are forced to wait for them to finish with the patient or postpone the session and thus end up wasting a lot of time (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014).
Due to the fact that each healthcare worker makes their own notes which are rarely shared because they are made on paper, it is difficult to track reports of other healthcare workers attending to the patient, which may bring confusion. It also becomes difficult for synchronous communication to be initiated because health workers cannot trace other healthcare workers’ schedules to know when they are available (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003).
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Such kind of communication breakdown can be addressed through the use of a scheduling system, which ensures that each healthcare worker logs in information concerning their sessions with the patient. Through the system, it is easy to follow schedules made by other healthcare workers, such that nurses can plan the most appropriate time to see clients to avoid time wastage, as well as identify the best time for synchronous communication (Pinelle and Gutwin, 2003). Improved efficiency is not only expected to increase productivity but it also reduces the probability of burnout among nurses.
The home visits scheduling system is bound to improve efficiency in terms of number of homes visited per day and also save nurses long exhausting hours of travel (Mankowska, Meisel and Bierwirth, 2014). The system would cluster homes according to location in order to plan for effective travel. Visits would be scheduled in such a way that homes in the same area are clustered for same day visits as opposed to visiting different areas the same day. This would reduce the travelling time and also reduce exhaustion, consequently reducing burnout.
Considering the fact that the system has all the information about clients in one place, the nurse can easily retrieve information and make well-versed decisions based on the information. This works better than using client files because not only is the information easily retrievable, the nurse can make updates and easily compare notes for different clients. Such information can guide the nurse on areas of care to concentrate on, based on client history. Availability of information at the click of a button would go a long way in reducing burnout among nurses and thus enhance productivity.
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Conclusion
It is undeniable based on the discussion that stress management training and introduction of a home visit scheduling system would be effective in reducing burnout among home healthcare nurses. Notably, training nurses on stress management will ensure that they are more aware of their daily stressors, why they occur and how to deal with them. Time management taught during this training is also highly important in promoting efficiency and reducing burnout.
The home visit scheduling system would make it easier for nurses to plan visits, avoid conflict visits and promote communication synchronization. Through this system, visits would be well planned and there would be reduced rescheduling of visits. This essentially translates into less burnout by the nurses. The stress management training and home visit scheduling would therefore impact home healthcare nurse burnout in a significant manner.
Hall, R. (2011). Handbook of Healthcare System Scheduling. New York, Springer Science & Business Media.
Mankowska, D., Meisel, F., & Bierwirth, C. (2014). The home health care routing and scheduling problem with interdependent services. Health Care Management Science, 17(1), 15-30. doi:10.1007/s10729-013-9243-1. Retrieved from eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=12&sid=a576b81a-91da-4e90-bca3-a6f0a26ae995%40sessionmgr114&hid=111
