Description
- You should respond to your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.
- All replies must be constructive and use literature where possible.
Kelli Lynn
Advanced Practice Module 6 Discussion
Burnout is widespread among healthcare professionals. Coming from a place of deep feelings of nursing burnout and experiencing Covid-19, I felt that I was running away from the bedside by returning to school and pursuing an advanced degree. The school has completely changed my understanding of myself and the battle of burnout.
Burnout is characterized by a decline in physical, emotional, and psychological energy resulting from work-related stress (Wei et al., 2020). I have experienced much work overload, no resources or control, serious value conflicts, a significant absence of a sense of community among other workmates, and fundamental injustice. I presume that other nurses around me feel what I feel. I did not give it much thought until I began researching for this project.
My research project proposal stated that burnout has many causes for individual Nurse practitioners and has an emotional and financial toll on the healthcare system. Burnout causes workforce recruitment and retention problems leading to decreased quality of life for patients and providers. Presenting this assignment would greatly assist my journey with burnout and propel my healing, understanding, and creativity.
The Maslach burnout theory is a theory that I learned about for my research project with much amusement because I would have thought with such feelings of personal burnout that I would have been aware of this theory long ago. The Maslach burnout theory states that burnout is a state which occurs as a result of a prolonged mismatch between a person and at least one of the following six dimensions of work; workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values (DallOra et al., 2020). I feel that most nurses would understand that burnout manifests in emotional exhaustion and intense feelings of frustration.
I told my teenage children that I hate people and then felt sorrow over the idea of what I was teaching them. To go through life with a strong distaste for people, in general, is not being the best person you can be. Immersion into this project with weekly assignments that fostered more understanding, reading, and explanation of feelings of Nursing burnout has enabled me to come to an understanding of my feelings. I realize I do not want nor intend to be someone who “hates people.”
Specifically, my research project discussed Nurse Practitioner burnout in Primary Care. My exposure to primary care through clinical showed me the craziness that is abundant with the demands of performing as a provider in this arena. To put it specifically to the point and sum up essential what I learned about the research project, I could state that I learned a lot about burnout. I wish to explain that what I got from my learning was very cathartic, and I was able to expel many personal emotions, which I feel grateful.
The school and this final project have enhanced my work’s meaningfulness. I feel a sense of purpose and want to contribute at work, I feel a sense of worth, and it is motivating. I look forward to my future nursing work and have had significant connections with patients I encounter, which is not something I have done for a while.
The discussion question regarding approaching the assignment differently is perplexing to me. I honestly do not think I could have approached this assignment differently than I did. The immense stress and anxiety one feels while trying to study, work, understand, write papers, and occasionally do laundry or empty the dishwasher felt like a rollercoaster ride that I just hung on to for dear life.
References
DallOra, C., Ball, J., Reinius, M., & Griffiths, P. (2020). Burnout in nursing: A theoretical review. Human Resources for Health, 18(1). Retrieved July 31, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00469-9 (Links to an external site.)
Wei, H., King, A., Jiang, Y., Sewell, K. A., & Lake, D. M. (2020). The Impact of Nurse Leadership Styles on Nurse Burnout: A Systematic Literature Review. Nurse Leader, 18(5), 439450. Retrieved July 31, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1541461220300926#:~:text=The%20major%20influencing%20leadership%20styles%20include%20authentic%20and,plays%20a%20significant%20role%20in%20alleviating%20nurse%20burnout.
