The ability to receive emergency medical care can only be ensured by the continuity of the relevant healthcare facilities. Nurses work 24 hours a day on common weekends, holidays, and non-working days (Smith & Field, 2019). The problem I have encountered in the nursing environment is constant overwork. These situations, according to nurses, happen all the time. This happens because of hospitals’ heavy caseload and the COVID-19 virus. Sick people need constant supervision, and nurses have to sacrifice their rest, and therefore their health, to provide uninterrupted care. In this paper, I would like to discuss what I have contributed to the solution to the problem of overworked healthcare workers.
I saw the problems caused by overwork when I was interning in a hospital. The senior nurses worked long hours and then stayed over time to check on patients. The hospital did not bother to provide senior nurses with support as night shift nurses. Thus, evening rounds fell on the shoulders of workers who had already worked nine-hour shifts. Because of this, the nurses felt great fatigue and stress as their time was reduced to a maximum of six hours. To solve this problem, I contacted the hospital management. I had to go through several conversations with the secretaries in order to get an appointment. However, eventually, I was able to explain the situation personally to the director. During the meeting, I suggested some alternatives so that the nurses would not be overworked all the time. I also explained that because of the constant stress and lack of sleep, this overworking did not increase but only decreased the efficiency of the staff.
The main barrier to change for me was the supervisor’s unwillingness to change the way the medical center works. He was a conservative and not used to changing the already established rules. I had to spend a lot of time convincing him of the need for change. The main factor that helped him decide to change his routine was that the nurses could not provide better service to patients because of overtime. If that service is not provided, patients will not come to our private clinic, which will result in monetary loss. Like any manager, our director could not afford to reduce profits and agreed to renegotiate the nurses’ working conditions. After discussing a plan for change, the director took the proposal to the board of managers, and they approved it. The nursing schedule was now clearly limited to a nine-hour shift, with night shift staff making evening rounds.
The Board of Managers influenced the quick decision and implementation of the changes since most members actively favored medical reform. In retrospect, the only thing I would have changed was the speed with which I approached management. Before suggesting a change in the work schedule, I observed the nurses for a long time and weighed whether it was worth going to management with this question. Next time I would be quicker because the more promptly I approached them, the sooner the change would happen. In the case of the nurses’ constant overwork, rapid changes were necessary to protect the staff from professional burnout due to constant stress and fatigue. The lesson drawn from this situation is that the more alert people are to problems, the greater the opportunity to solve them.
Reference
Smith, B., & Field, L. (2019). Nursing care: An essential guide for nurses and healthcare workers in primary and secondary care (3rd Ed.). Routledge. Web.