Peer Support Program for New Nurses - Essay Example

Peer Support Program for New Nurses IntroductionAccording to Emergency Support Network (2014) one of the main ways to make any working environment healthy and productive is by creating team spirit in the workplace. Employees seem to thrive well in workplaces where everyone is willing to help everyone else. While competition is also healthy in increasing self efficacy, cooperation and teamwork beats everything else (Inside Jobs Coach, 2014). In this regard, creating a peer support system in any workplace highly improves the quality of work in the workplace.

Nurses work in a very distressing work environment arising from the nature of their career. Every day that nurses see a distressed person, an injured person and even deaths occurring almost every day in their presence. Although they are trained to handle this, they nonetheless have to sometimes be overwhelmed by this (Robinson, 2003). These nurses need peer-support in the workplace.Nurses also almost always have to work with precision which means that any small mistakes can lead to serious repercussions for the patients as well as the nurses.

Peer support is definitely appreciated to maintain this accuracy in working. New nurses may not be able to have everything in their fingertips and sometimes can have a very difficult time getting their head around the many tasks they carry out every day. In this regard, a peer support program for new nurses would have to include the following;Social supportLike any workplace, nurses and especially new ones need social support from their peers. Social and psychological support is important to the nurses because that feeling of belonging is a vital ingredient in increasing the nurse’s efficacy (Hughes, 2012).

How to build these systemsBuilding the formal social support systems can be made from the informal to make formal systems. It is good to note that informal social support systems develop naturally everywhere in the work place. Unfortunately, these informal social support systems are not efficient in their ways and it is necessary to make sure that they are harnessed. To formalize this system is important to make sure that the new nurses can benefit as soon as they join the working force in a care centre or hospital.

Professional supportNew nurses can be overwhelmed by their work. Needless to say, overwhelmed nurses can only give healthcare which is of lower quality to the patient. This can also lead to their mental health deteriorating and they therefore need support. This peer support can be accessed through information systems which make real-time consultations with other nurses (Michael, 2014). Nurses need to be sure of what they are doing and sometimes communication with other nurses can be hard. It is good to note that the professional peer support system is geared towards making the knowledge of the nurses reachable by all the other nurses in order to make sure that it is useful in helping the other nurses in their work.

Some of the deadliest mistakes that nurses make can be said to be caused by inadequate knowledge (not skills). By making the knowledge of the other nurses easily accessible, it becomes possible to help the nurses to be self efficacious.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)Cognitive behavioral therapy is used to treat people with various psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression and addiction. One of the main issues with CBT is the fact that it requires accurate and statically accurate results and standards for nurses to be able to use it properly.

As Freeman (2006) says, nurses require evidence that is empirically tested to help in improving self efficacy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is scientifically capable of providing this to nurses and also in being included in the peer support system to deliver better results for nursing practice. .Reference list:Emergency Support Network. (2014). Dynamic Training Services > Peer Support Training . Retrieved April 04, 2014, from Emergency Supoort Network: http://www.emergencysupport.com.au/peersupporttraining.

aspFreeman, M. (2006). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Advanced Practice Nursing: An Overview. Topics in Advanced Practice Nursing eJournal, Vol. 6(3) , pp. 87-98.Hughes, R. (2012). International Handbook of Workplace Trauma Support. Hoboken, NY: John Wiley & Sons.Inside Jobs Coach. (2014, March). TEN WAYS TO CREATE A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT. Retrieved April 04, 2014, from Inside Jobs Coach: http://www.insidejobscoach.com/print_files/ten_ways.htmMichael, P. (2014). 5 Characteristics of A Positive Work Environment.

Retrieved April 04, 2014, from HoghKiat.com: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/positive-working-environment/Robinson, P. (2003). Establishing and Maintaining Peer Support Programs in the Workplace. New York, NY: Chevron Publishing Corporation.