The Relationship between Long Working Hours who Work in Saudi Hospitals - Term Paper Example

Introduction Many nurses working in Saudi hospitals are working for long hours which can be up to 12 hours per day. This has led to lack of motivation and have an overwhelming sense of failure to achieve efficiency in the nursing profession in Saudi. Working hour’s factor plays a tremendous role in health service delivery, and is a foundational issue that must be addressed to avoid errors that occur due to fatigue of the nurses. This proposed research will explore the relation between working more than 12 hours and errors made. Research question The questions designed for this research is: (1) Research question: What is the relationship between working more than 12 hours and nurses who work in Saudi hospitals After the careful review of prior studies and research conducted on this subject matter, this researcher has both an inductive and deductive position in relationship to the text. It is apparent that working for long hours in the nursing profession has various implications to the nurses and the whole profession as a whole. Review of previous studies A lot of studies have been carried out to determine the relationship of nurses working for long hours and making errors. For example Fischer (2005) studies provide a good foundation to carry out the current research. Instead of repeating the details of the previous work we can focus on describing some of the major studies within the research together with the shortcomings of the research basis. According to Fischer (2005) many nurses in working in Saudi Arabia work for more than a minimum of 12 hours. It is assumed that nurses are working for long hours because of increase in workloads, scarcity of nurses and also because of the policies of the hospital. The issue is that such long working could lead to these nurses making errors. This agrees with the previous s studies carried out by other researchers who notes that, working in shifts tend to lead to humans to work for more 12 which is outside the normally hours of 8 hours working day. Since human are “programmed” to work for 8 hours during the day, it follows that working for 12 hours will lead to fatigue which will definitely lead to making of errors. (Ernst, 2004) What is long working hours? Long working hours can be defined in different ways, for instance, daily or weekly hours. Many studies mainly focus on weekly working hours of a minimum of 48 hours or more according to directive about working hours. However, in this research long working hours will imply working for more than 60 hours in week. (Ernst, 2004) Why does long working hours lead to errors in nurses? How will long working hours have an affect on nurses and lead to them making error on duty? By causing the following effects: Stress; many studies show that long working hours cause stress in the nurses. (Fischer, 2005) stress causes ill health of the worker and leads to the nurses being susceptible to making errors. Fatigue; can be explained as a condition where one is tired both psychological and physical, Burnout among nurses The phrase burn out is re associated with a situation occurring due to professional doing their duties for a long time which lead to emotional fatigue, physical exhaustion and also lack of personal satisfaction. The research is based on determine the effect of working for long hours by the nurses. (Fischer, 2005) Limitations of these studies The studies have limitation in that considering effects of long working hours on nurses if long working hours make nurses to make errors. Various other variables can cause the nurses to make errors. (Fischer, 2005) Factors such as work environment age, personality and individual habits may cause the nurses to make the errors. Other factors like family stability and support of social system also may contribute unreliable data outcome. Aim To examine the impact of long working hours on nurses who are working in Saudi hospital. If working for long hours contribute to making errors by the nurses. Research Design This research was carried out using qualitative research methods. The methods used to get information are through interviewing and through questionnaires, which were designed to get specific information from the respondent. The aim of the research is to find out the effect of working for long hours has on nurses that work in Saudi Arabia (Patton, 2002) Methodology The research was conducted in the Saudi Arabia hospital, the research was based on fifteen registered nurses who had worked in the hospital for more than two years. The main question asked was, are long working hours have an effect on your work performance, error, safety. For the sake of keeping the data to managerial size, it was thought that the research should concentrate basically on the nursing staff working in King Fadh hospital. For over 2 years. The research also analyzed the previous studies done in the same field. (Ernst, 2004) Methods of Data Collection Standardized questions were prepared and asked to all participants. The questions will be asked to nurses in king Fadh hospital. The researcher will carry out the interviews. Participants will be required to adhere to, and sign a confidentiality agreement to alleviate the propensity of identities being revealed. (Patton, 2002) Data Analysis Procedures Compiled data will be inputted into an Excel Spreadsheet by the researcher along with anecdotal notes from the field observations of this study. Ethics All research participants will be informed of a minimal amount of risk, which includes the allowance for someone identifying them as a participant in this investigation. No actual names will be used during this investigation, rather subject letter variables, to further eliminate the opportunity for identities to be divulged. All participants observation notes, responses and personal information will be held in the strictest of confidence and will not be revealed even after the study has concluded. All participants will be required to sign a confidentiality statement and will be encouraged vehemently to concur with the terms of the agreement. In the event that any information that could affect the validity of this study is compromised, that information will be discarded, and nullified from being considered in the analysis of the findings. The research This research study is aimed at identifying the relationship between working more than 12 hours and nurses who work in Saudi hospitals? And there relation therefore it has on the nurses in making errors. Method; a cross sections research was carried out among the registered nurses in king Fadh hospital in Saudi. The data was collected through interviews conducted on the nurses who asked standardized question about the effect of working for 12 hours. In the above mentioned hospital. Another method of collecting data was by looking at the past hospital records about patients and errors that have occurred in the past 3 years. Results Of the 15 nurses who were interviewed, 10 of them said that they end up making small error when dealing with patients especially during the last 2 hours of their duty. These errors were such as forgetting to give the right medicine to right patients, filling in wrong data about the patient’s information, or failing to give the right dose particularly when giving injections. Out of this 15, three of the nurse disclosed that they at time dosed off when on duty and those prone to making errors. The remaining two did not remember making a serious error but did not rule out making errors. Table showing the response of participants Response Percent Number Make errors 75% 15% 10% N=10 N=3 N=2 Don’t make error (serious errors) No idea Discussion Looking at the data obtained from the survey, the issues that emerge clearly can be classified into four categories of strategies that support the idea which regard long working hours causes errors in nurses. 1. long working hours lead to fatigue which lead to making of errors by nurses 2. long working hours reduces efficiency of the nurses The participants reported that the current long working hours lead to the nurses’ getting so tired and not being able to perform well in their duties. A large percentage of them felt that the current working hours stipulated in the hospitals should be reduced to at most eight to improve the service delivery of the nurses. While describing the positive and negative responses from the nurses, it has been noted that the patients value a good services, and effective nursing. This is so because their health is at stake. In this case, the participants expressed greater self-awareness on the process by particularly challenges of reducing nursing errors. Participants A group of nursing staff in King Fadh hospital were examined, the group comprised of nurses who had worked in the hospital for more than two years. The sample data were informed about the research and agreed to participate voluntarily. Those who accepted were interviewed by the researcher who had a set of questions that were similar for the entire participant. Clarifications were made were necessary to ensure that the participant understood the questions. The participant varied in their ages and also in their gender. Also the participant had varied work experience. Significance of the study Nursing calls for quality, challenging and informative practices suitable for helping patients to recover. Nurses have a duty of ensuring that they don’t make error which can cause patients to be injured or lose there lives, to implement this, it will mean that the existing working hours be reduced by the hospital administration. Conclusion of the research This research calls for increased attention to the development of new strategies for working hours in Saudi hospital. .The following is a summary of the findings; 1. Long hours leads to nurses losing their efficiency at work 2. Long working hours causes nurses to make errors. Limitations of the study The study does not incorporate other factors that may lead to nurses making errors; the number of the sample data is very limited and thus, the data reliability may not accurate. Delimitations The delimitations of this research effort are the types of Assertive Discipline models that will be used; the experiences of the nurses being observed as well as the consequences of other factors will delimit the research. Future proposal The research lays foundation for future studies, and indicates that in future more variable have to be incorporated in the research to be able to find out the accurate results about causes of look working hours. Variables such as working conditions, the age of the nurses and working experience will give a more accurate answer. Conclusion Research is important in getting the right information about an aspect, researches findings can be used to implement different polices and make the necessary corrections. In the above research, it is clear, that long working hours will have a negative effect on the staff. The effects include tiredness, fatigue and burnout which have a direct impact on the efficiency of service delivery of the nurses. Long working hours may cause the nurses to make unnecessary errors. It is therefore; important that hospital in Saudi should review their working hour’s policies and reduce working hours to make their nurses be more effective and efficient. References Denzin, N. K and Lincoln, Y. S. (2000): Handbook of qualitative research (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. DeWalt, K. M. and DeWalt, B. R. (2002): Participant observation. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Ernst, M.E (2004): Nurses' job satisfaction, stress, and recognition in a paediatric setting journal of medicine, Belmont. CA Fischer, C.T. (2005): Working conditions of hospital staff nurses and health safety: Introduction through empirical studies. Academic Press Fischer, C.T. (Ed.) (2005): Qualitative research methods for psychologists: Introduction through empirical studies. Academic Press Patton, M. Q. (2002): Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Read More