Overview
Nursing is always teamwork. Everyone is responsible for their actions and the whole team. It is imperative to provide the most appropriate and adequate healthcare. But what if your teammate is late and you have to do all the work alone until they come? Imagine a situation: there are two of you at the shift today, you arrive on time, and your colleague is late for an hour leaving all the work on you. You cannot reject the additional work because it is the health and lives of people you save. You cannot just abandon the patients, so there is no other way but to do the work for both. Such a tense working hour can make you feel exhausted, as if you already worked your whole shift. Objectively, you work over. However, this problem is usually neglected by both employers and the general public. Why should you care?
Problem
Today, a nurse in the United States is positioned as a doctor’s partner, which is logical: they are constantly in contact with the patient, satisfy all their needs, respond promptly to the deterioration of their physiological and psychological well-being, and build relationships with relatives of patients. The nurse collects and analyzes all the information about the patient’s condition, and only they can advise the doctor in detail about whom he is treating.
The main problem in this situation is that as nurses’ workload increases, the quality of patient care decreases. Studies show that in the case of nurses’ overworking, both the patients themselves and the medical institution suffer (Tsernov). Therefore, the problem of overworking nurses while doing work for themselves and their colleagues directly affects everyone. Comprehensive awareness of the problem is essential because each of us can be a patient during this processing hour.
Action
Discipline directly affects the quality of health care delivery. And the demand not to be late is easily supported by arguments of common sense. If you are a person close to a healthcare professional (for example, a relative, a friend, or a partner), try to help the person not to be late for work. For example, if you can help him in a difficult situation that could potentially lead to being late, then do so. Thus, you will indirectly influence the improvement of the medical organization’s work and the provision of medical services to patients. Perhaps your feasible help will help to avoid a medical error.
References
Carlesi, Katya Cuadros, et al. “Patient safety incidents and nursing workload.”Revista Latino-Americana de enfermagem 25 (2017). Web.
Duffield, Christine, et al. “Nursing staffing, nursing workload, the work environment and patient outcomes.” Applied nursing research 24.4 (2011): 244-255.
Griffiths, Peter, et al. “Nursing workload, nurse staffing methodologies and tools: A systematic scoping review and discussion.” International journal of nursing studies 103 (2020): 103487.
Nishizaki, Yuji, et al. “Relationship between nursing workloads and patient safety incidents.” Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare 3 (2010): 49.
Ross, Cheryl, Cath Rogers, and Christine King. “Safety culture and an invisible nursing workload.” Collegian 26.1 (2019): 1-7.
Tšernov, Kirill. “Overworked Nurses Are Killing Your Healthcare Business.”Qminder, Qminder, 2018. Web.