Time Management and Nursing Burnout - Essay Example

?Running Head: TIME MANAGEMENT AND NURSING BURNOUT Time Management and Nursing Burnout Submitted by Goes Here September, 2011 TIME MANAGEMENT AND NURSING BURNOUT Introduction Nursing as a profession basically attracts those people who are care-giving and want to make a difference in the lives of other people. Unfortunately these are exactly the kind of people who are susceptible to burn out. Burnout is typically characterized by periods of prolonged stress, feeling worn down, low energy, lack of enthusiasm for the job that is given to you, feeling depression even at small failures in the job and not wanting to work any longer. Any professional is susceptible to burnout. However nursing as a profession is full of strain as they have to work in the stressful environment of the hospital. Nurses have to frequently deal with patients and family members who are sad and traumatized. This along with the intense work pressure can lead to a quicker burnout among nurses than the people of any other profession. Time management is considered as one of the techniques through which this burnout can be prevented. Time management as a skill looks very easy to practice. However the truth is that it is the hardest thing to do. Consistently managing your time day in and day out requires a very high degree of self discipline. Literature review The time management techniques have been fairly well covered in the book chapter. We are exploring an article here which goes beyond just time management to relieve a person of stress and make his life more valuable. This article can be said to be of the type of self care or self well being. This is absolutely an essential component in order to avoid a burnout. We will study some dimensions associated with the job of a person which should be satisfied for him to continue working. Absence of these dimensions can lead to burnout of the individual. We will initially review the article written by Matuska Christianen which has been attached in appendix A. This paper presents a proposed model of lifestyle balance that meets biological and psychological needs within the unique environment of individuals. The writer of the article claims that once the biological and psychological needs of the individuals are in alignment with the environment of the individual; the level of stress faced in the work is reduced and the person is able to enjoy his job fully. This article claims well being as the lack of stress during the work. The person should be satisfied with his work and look forward to do it every day to avoid stress and improve his well being. The article presents five factors, dimensions or conditions which need to be satisfied in order to achieve physical and mental well being. These 5 dimensions are essential for the well being of an individual and are thus key factors in preventing work related stress. The first dimension is biological health and physical safety. These can be said to be the most basic needs of the individual. If these are not satisfied it leads to a lot of stress and the person finds it extremely difficult to continue in the job as he faces a large amount of stress. The first dimension is the foundation upon which all other dimensions and the endeavors of the human being rest. The second dimension discussed in the article is rewarding and self-affirming relationship with others. This can be said to be the need for affiliation. A person wants his co-workers and those with which he works to appreciate the good work done by him. It can be easily seen in nursing that relatives of a patient might blame the nurses for any failure in health of the person. These accusations may not have any basis but increases the stress level of the nurse which leads to disillusionment with the job. Rewarding behavior discussed in this dimension need not be reward given by a third party. This may even by the reward which an individual decides to give himself for sticking to an action plan or achieving a target which was decided earlier by him. The third dimension discussed in the article is the ability to feel interested, engaged, challenged and competent. This is described as the amount of confidence that people have in the job they are doing. This dimension acts as a self fulfilling prophecy. If an individual is confident about his work, he works better, is satisfied with his work and is not much stressed out. People also feel confident with the rewards associated with the job. These rewards need not be monetary in nature but can even be emotional awards. These rewards may differ from person to person and different people may be influenced by different kind of rewards. Nursing career has a number of emotional awards in store in the form of appreciation from the patients but it also causes a lot of stress to achieve these appreciations. A person feels engaged in his job if he has something to look forward to everyday in his job. A job which is considered as monotonous by the individual will not be able to excite him. A person’s internal need should be fulfilled for a job to be considered as interesting and rewarding by him. The fourth dimension identified in the paper is the ability of our job to create meaning and positive identity in our life. Different people view life differently. Some want to serve people whereas others want to rule them. Some people are satisfied with loads of cash, others needs power. If these needs of a person are not fulfilled during his lifetime he considers his life to be a missed opportunity. The job of the individual should be such that his belief of what life stands for and what is the purpose of an individual in life is satisfied. A nursing career should be chosen by individuals who consider their life to be of value only by helping and caring for others. If this is not considered as the aim of life by a nurse than there will be dissonance between what the nurse wants and what his job can offer him. The writer claims that no matter how many time management techniques are utilized by the individual; he would always be stressed in his job. The fifth and the last dimension explained in the paper are organized time and energy to meet important personal goals and personal renewal. (H.Christiansen, April 2008 Vol15(1))This dimension deals with the stress that the person may feel in trying to fit more amount of work in a limited time frame. The writer encourages people to priorities work in such a way that maximum benefit is provided to them. Time needs to be arranged in a way that meets their needs and satisfies them. The second article is taken from Harvard business review and focus entirely on time management. The setting of the article is corporate world but the same techniques described can be easily applied to nursing as a career. The article encourages a user to deal with operations separately from strategy. The article asks a user to deal with operations mechanically without using too much imagination and try to strategies only at a specific time. This not only saves time but also increases efficiency. The article also stresses on the amount of time wasted in the workplace on discussions. These discussions should be completed goal oriented and should aim at finding solution to a problem. If this is not the case; discussions only waste time and increase the stress level of individuals. The article also talks about the importance of sticking to the decisions. Once a decision has been made, changing it frequently wastes time and energy. It also causes depression that you are not competent enough. The article also talks about evaluating your time spending daily and trying to analyze where time was wasted by you. Once this has been identified it can be improved on a day to day basis. (C.Mankins, Septmeber 2004) Personal Opinion The first major hurdle in time management is to know you. Once a person is in sync with himself; the rest becomes easy. Every person has a different biological rhythm. Someone may be a morning person while some other may be more active during the night. A person needs to be ware about his biological rhythm and schedule his tasks in such a way that most of his tasks fall at the time he is more active. Another important thing which can be learnt is to organize the physical environment around the individual effectively. This saves precious time which is lost in trying to find a particular thing later. In order to keep things in order we can follow the following golden rules - - compartmentalize, color-code, convenience, deciliter. (Decker, 2008) We also need to schedule daily activities, avoid procrastination and avoid over-committing ourselves to the job or the work we are supposed to do. As we have discussed in the two articles – proper management of time is essential in order to prevent a burnout. The second article discussed here claims that proper time management requires the segregation of planning and implementation. However I believe that this might not be possible in the nursing profession which is dynamic in nature. Planning cannot be delegated to a particular point of time as the needs of the patient may change as time passes. Some patients may require emergency care and may disrupt the operational plan which has been developed by the nurse. I believe that a practical way to follow these recommendations will be to leave the planning work to doctors and the hospital management. A nurse will be better off if she simply follows the instructions given by them. This might not be considered as the right attitude by some nurses and but can be a great help in preventing burnout among the nurses. By doing this you are delegating a part of your duty to others and are not trying to do everything yourself. I fully agree with the 5 dimensions which are presented in the first article. A nurse should aim to create a suitable working environment around her. This will require her to be selfish. Being selfish goes against the basic ethos which are related to the nursing profession. But being selfish does not mean neglecting the patients. It simple means surrounding yourself with people and things which are beneficial to you. These people should act as a support structure and provide you with means to complete your work effectively and in a timely manner. This may even require cutting yourself off from people who are trouble makers and create hindrance in your work. Bibliography C.Mankins, M. (Septmeber 2004). Stop Wasting Valuable Time. Harvard Business Review . Decker, S. (2008). Personal Management : Time and Self Care Strategies. In J. C. JoAnn Zerwekh, Nursing Today: Transitions and Trends (pp. 21 - 44). Chicago: Elsevier Health Sciences. H.Christiansen, K. M. (April 2008 Vol15(1)). A Proposed Model of Lifestyle Balance. Journal of Occupational Science , 9 - 19. Appendix A Appendix B Read More