Walden NURS 6053 Organizational Policies and  Practices to Support Healthcare Issues

Walden NURS6053 Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues

The COVID-19 pandemic has initiated an upheaval in society and has significantly  cause  considerable stress during this pandemic. Healthcare professionals have been on the front line during this health crisis, particularly hospital nurses in all specialty. The focus of this study was to assess the high level of stress of healthcare workers during the first wave of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic by an international study is questionnaires disseminated from collecting online demographic and stress-related data over the globe, during the pandemic. Stress levels were evaluated using non-calibrated visual analog scale, from 0 (no stress) to 100 (maximal stress).

The main outcome was work-related stress, measured with the use of a visual analog scale i.e. a non-calibrated horizontal line ranging from minimum (0) to maximum (100). Visual analog scale of stress is a validated tool commonly used in daily practice. With this type of tool, participants can self-assess in a simple way the range of their possible feelings. Secondary outcomes were sociodemographic (age, sex), occupations (non-healthcare workers, medical doctors, paramedical staff), and working conditions (working in usual conditions, working in unusual conditions, interruption of work). This was a computerized questionnaire hosted on the secure REDCAP platform. It consisted of about 100 questions. The study presented here reports on the answers related to work-related stress. Depending on the answers given, individuals had access to all or part of the questionnaire.

Women Healthcare workers more affected:

In our study, whatever their profession, women had the highest levels of work-related stress during the first global lockdown. Our results concord with the literature revealing that women are more prone to stress, and may also suffer more from the negative psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Women often have a double life combining work and family life. This is even less reconcilable when both professional and family constraints increase. Indeed, families had to adapt to the closure of schools. Even in couples that shared the involvement in the education and care of children, women are still mostly implicated. Given these elements and the predominance of women in healthcare professionals, the WHO advised to study gender-specific consequences of the pandemic. Even if women have less severe forms of COVID, they were frightened of contracting COVID-19. They may also have been more impacted by the higher number of deaths and difficulties during the crisis. Women show greater psychophysiological concordance and consistency than men, and may therefore present more psychological vulnerability. Improving Work -Life  Integration (WLI) is likely to improve healthcare worker’s quality of life, organizational outcomes and, ultimately, quality of care for patients (Schwartz et al., 2018)., 

Healthcare System Taking action on burnout

According to  National  Libraryy of Medicine During COVID-19, employers were noticing the need for intervention. Through employee assistance programs (EAPs) or health care insurance, mental health programs were offered. Some programs offered by mental health staff are stress reduction, cognitive restructuring and reframing, and grief counseling. Mental health can also help a nurse to recognize and admit to symptoms of burnout. COVID-19 was an introduction of EAPs and mental health checks that should occur routinely. Nurses will not always admit or even recognize that they need mental health support. However, if one knows the signs of burnout, they can see it in nurses.

The national collaborative, which rolled out in 2017, has three main goals: better understanding the challenges to clinician well-being, raising the visibility of clinician stress and burnout, and elevating evidence-based solutions. To date, the collaborative has received commitments from more than 150 organizations, including health systems, hospitals, medical schools and state medical boards, to improve clinician well-being and curb burnout.

Jonathan Ripp, MD, MPH, chief wellness officer at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City also co-chairs the national Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine, which this March co-published a first-of-its-kind charter in the Journal of the American Medical Association that outlines fundamental principles for supporting provider well-being. The charter has been endorsed by more than a dozen organizations, including the American Medical Association and Association of American Medical Colleges.

Preventing, promoting appropriate support for healthcare workers may significantly reduce the effects contibutind to burnouts in organization;

1. Strong Interpersonal Relationships outside of work

2. Work-Life Balance

3. Healthy Lifestyle

4. Decrease Stress

5. Mindfulness

6. Education

7. Recognize Achievements

8. Healthy work Enviroment

9. Recommendtions

10. Therapy

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has and will have consequences for every population. Nevertheless, healthcare professionals were more impacted than other workers by work-related stress. Paramedical staff were more impacted on than physicians. Across all occupational categories, age appears to mitigate work-related stress, and maybe due to the effects of experience. We were able to identify risk factors for high levels of work-related stress such as youth, female gender, paramedical professions and having maintained one’s professional activity. The impact of such a surge in work-related stress may inflict a second blow to already fragile healthcare systems. Adequately monitoring work-related stress and its effects on healthcare workers may be crucial to plan for post-pandemic adjustments. The finding that burnout and poor wellbeing are both associated with poorer patient safety has significant implications for policymakers and management teams within healthcare settings (Hall et al., 2016). 

Reference

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National Library of Medicine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8882221/

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Schwartz, S. P., Adair, K. C., Bae, J., Rehder, K.J., Shanafelt, T.D., Profit, J., & Sexton, J.B 2018. Work-Life balance behaviors cluster in work settings and relate to burnout and safety culture: Across-sectional survey analysis BMJ Quality & Safety, 28 (2), 142-150. Doing: 10.1136/bmjqs 2018-007933

 The National’s Health https://www.thenationshealth.org/content/48/8/1.3

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REPLY QUOTE

In this Discussion, you will reflect on a national healthcare issue and examine how competing needs may impact the development of polices to address that issue.

To Prepare:

Review the Resources and think about the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously selected for study in Module 1.

Reflect on the competing needs in healthcare delivery as they pertain to the national healthcare issue/stressor you previously examined.

Walden NURS6053 Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare IssuesORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: 

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