Strategies to prevent stress and burnout in nursing

Strategies to prevent stress and burnout in nursing

Introduction

Burnouts and stress is considered a determinant of depressive disorders which are the fourth leading cause of disease costs. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2020, depressive disorders are the second leading cause of morbidity, behind only ischemic heart disease. The becoming ill physical and / or mental frequency increases sick leave which may cause early retirement, increased costs with medical treatments, increased incidence of coronary heart disease and endocrine.

Nursing management is the most vitally integral part of healthcare systems. The goals and objectives of health care nurse are to promote the health and well being of indigenous populations. They work with the honesty of purpose and pull themselves with their own bootstraps to actually provide good to the society. There is no denial to the fact that nursing is one of the most challenging occupation as nurses work to handle patients stuck with their dilemmatic life and work long hours within the stubborn psychological framework of patients (Sheldon , Barrett and Ellington, 2006, pp. 141-147.).

Research on stress and burnout among nurses go back more than four decades. In this period we have sought to investigate its occurrence, and levels measured variables relate to personal, demographic, occupational and social in order to understand its genesis.

In the last two decades, interest and studies with this analysis have been intensified by social and economic changes that affect daily to nursing work process and thereby their job satisfaction. Turnover rates and a shortage of trained nurses in the market have contributed to the mobilization of professional associations in the sense of awareness among public bodies and managers of private institutions for a reassessment of the role of a nurse at various levels health care.

Discussion

Stress and burnout

Stress arises when the individual has to face situations that require adaptation and can be interpreted by him as a challenge or threat, for example, change of job or promotion, marriage or divorce, birth or death (Power, 2008). The interpretation and emotion caused by these events initiated a series of events at the biochemical level that will lead to hormonal discharges, mediated by the autonomic nervous system, via the limbic system and the central nervous system via the hypothalamus, to prepare the body for face and restore balance (homeostasis).

This adaptive mechanism is physiological and not dependent on the stimulus that triggered it, but its intensity and continuity are closely related to the interpretation of the individual for losses and profits that come from the changes, their personal characteristics, coping resources that available at the time, its state of health, the environment in which it is, among other factors.

Work-related stress occurs when a person interprets the situation as exceeding the adaptive capacity, a worker may interpret an extra job as a threat (to entertain, to the time spent with family, etc.), and instead another can interpret it as a challenge.

Coping Strategies for Stress and Burnout

Faced with stressful situations considered, the individual psychological mechanisms ...