Quality Work Environments for Nurse and Patient Safety - Assignment Example

A nurse who had worked continuously for 30 hours became exhausted but was expected to stay back for work, which came to her as an order from the department physician. This order came to her because she was the only nurse who had closely monitored the condition of one specific patient, and the physician wanted the nurse to observe the patient for some more time. This was a genuine expectation and could have been easily accepted by the nurse who was very committed and dedicated to her work, but things did not happen that way because of the behavior and tone of the physician.

The nurse felt angry and frustrated as it hurt her self-esteem because she felt her efforts were ignored. I listened to her with patience and involvement as she revealed her anguish and pain. I waited until she calmed down and then spoke to her in-depth. I asked her many questions related to her time of working, reasons for long working hours, what motivated her to work that long and how she was able to cope with that work stress. After that, I explained the same situation from different perspectives, including the physician’s and patient’s expectations due to her involvement.

Reinforcing her importance in the situation, I also expressed my views on possible reasons for the physician’s behavior, and how she could ignore it by not taking it personally and blaming it on the situation. She was able to understand the situation and realized that she had to take care of herself before she could commit to caring for others.