NURS 8114 Discussion: Framing a Practice Problem as a Critical Question With Measurable Outcomes
DQ: Post a brief explanation of your critical question
Practice Problem
Nurses’ primary focus is on patient care. They neglect to take care of themselves. The nurse’s physical, mental, and spiritual health can decline due to the lack of self-care. This problem then can result in higher turnover, patient safety events, and decrease the quality of the care and outcomes of the patients.
Critical Question
How would patient care and outcomes change if nurses focused on holistic self-care?
Analyze Quality Improvement
Nurses inherently undergo a large amount of stress while caring for patients. Increased patient loads, high acuity patients, decreased staff, overtime, and salary are all examples of issues that can cause stress for the nurse (Crane & Ward, 2016). These stressors can cause physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses if they go unchecked.
Nurses can balance out the ill effects of these stressors by taking time to rest, eat properly, and focus on their spiritual and mental health. Not every technique works for every person. They will need to try different relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation to see what is effective for them (Crane & Ward, 2016).
The nurse can address not all stressors. They may need to reach out to their leadership team to discuss their concerns. Learning how to communicate the problems that arise and how they feel about those situations would be a beneficial part of self-care. If leadership is unaware of a problem and how it is changing the nurse’s well-being, they cannot correct it (Crane & Ward). The nurse must take the initiative to begin a dialogue within themselves and with their team.
Evidence-based practice is highly recommended when dealing with patient care. However, what happens when the research is focused on the one providing the patient care? Barriers exist that prevent the nurse from giving themselves the care they would expect to provide to their patients. A good example of a barrier is time. Nurses work, have families, homes, and continuing education. It is difficult to juggle all the nurse has to do without adding in time for themselves. However, the time spent in meditation, rest, and eating well can increase productivity, care, and job retention (Mills et al., 2018).
The nurse may need to develop a process that allows for time to focus on themselves. There is a need for the nurse to create a process that works for them. Each person is different and may require different practices. Focusing on holistic self-care, the nurse can better overcome the challenges of taking care of patients. This outcome directly relates to the quality of care that is given.
Stakeholders
Physicians are a stakeholder in this study. Nurses that are rested and physically and emotionally healthy are better equipped to take care of patients. This allows the physician to feel more confident that the nurse will provide the care prescribed.
Another stakeholder is the policymakers. As the policymakers create and implement strategies for the facility, they need the nurses to
provide appropriate and adequate care to the patients. They are also important in this process as they can help create plans that allow for the self-care of the nurse. These plans can help decrease safety events and poor outcomes.
Payors also benefit from processes that include nursing self-care. Patient outcomes have been linked to nursing job satisfaction, health, and retention (Crane & Ward, 2016). The decrease in patient injury, longer hospital stays, and turnover provides for more financial stability.
As nurses learn to care for themselves and turnover decreases, patients have more continuity of care. The patient can build rapport with their nurse, decreasing the stress the patient encounters while in the hospital or clinic. The nurses can give better care and therefore have better patient outcomes.
The nurse can feel like they have done what is required of them. They feel more job satisfaction. They have fewer missed days from work. They are less likely to look for new employment. All of these are reasons why the self-care of the nurse is so important.
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References
Crane, P., & Ward, S. (2016). Self-healing and self-care for nurses. Association of perioperative Registered Nurses 104(5), 386-400. https://doi.org/10.1016.j.aorn.2016.09.007.
Mills, J., Wand, T., Fraser, J. (2018). Exploring the meaning and practice of self-care among palliative care nurses and doctors: A qualitative study. BioMed Central Palliative Care 17(63). DOI: 10.1186/S12904-018-0318-0.
Practice Problem
Nurses’ primary focus is on patient care. They neglect to take care of themselves. The nurse’s physical, mental, and spiritual health can decline due to the lack of self-care. This problem then can result in higher turnover, patient safety events, and decrease the quality of the care and outcomes of the patients.
Critical Question
How would patient care and outcomes change if nurses focused on holistic self-care?
Analyze Quality Improvement
Nurses inherently undergo a large amount of stress while caring for patients. Increased patient loads, high acuity patients, decreased staff, overtime, and salary are all examples of issues that can cause stress for the nurse (Crane & Ward, 2016). These stressors can cause physical, mental, and spiritual illnesses if they go unchecked.
The nurse’s professional life can deteriorate as a result of a lack of self-care. If nurses are not living healthy lifestyles that focus on self-health, they have a higher rate of psychosocial issues. These issues can lead to physical illnesses, emotional distress, and eventually decreased patient outcomes, turnover, and burnout.
Burnout was measured in 1982 using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Oliveira et al., 2019). Burnout was measured based on emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduction of personal fulfillment. Concern has continued to grow regarding nurses and how they are affected by the stressors they experience while providing care Oliveira et al., 2019).
Nurses can balance out the ill effects of these stressors by taking time to rest, eat properly, and focus on their spiritual and mental health. Not every technique works for every person. They will need to try different relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation to see what is effective for them (Crane & Ward, 2016).
The nurse can address not all stressors. They may need to reach out to their leadership team to discuss their concerns. Learning how to communicate the problems that arise and how they feel about those situations would be a beneficial part of self-care. If leadership is unaware of a problem and how it is changing the nurse’s well-being, they cannot correct it (Crane & Ward). The nurse must take the initiative to begin a dialogue within themselves and with their team.
Evidence-based practice is highly recommended when dealing with patient care. However, what happens when the research is focused on the one providing the patient care? The study completed by Oliveira et al., shows that focusing on self-care, stress reduction, awareness of burnout symptoms, and reducing the effects of stress and burnout in nurses can be correlated to improved patient outcomes (2019).
Barriers prevent the nurse from giving themselves the care they would expect to provide to their patients. A good example of a barrier is time. Nurses work, have families, homes, and continuing education. It is difficult to juggle all the nurse has to do without adding in time for themselves. However, the time spent in meditation, rest, and eating well can increase productivity, care, and job retention (Mills et al., 2018).
The nurse may need to develop a process that allows for time to focus on themselves. There is a need for the nurse to create a process that works for them. Each person is different and may require different practices. Focusing on holistic self-care, the nurse can better overcome the challenges of taking care of patients. This outcome directly relates to the quality of care that is given.
Stakeholders
Physicians are a stakeholder in this study. Nurses that are rested and physically and emotionally healthy are better equipped to take care of patients. This allows the physician to feel more confident that the nurse will provide the care prescribed.
Another stakeholder is the policymakers. As the policymakers create and implement strategies for the facility, they need the nurses to provide appropriate and adequate care. They are also important in this process as they can help create plans that allow for the self-care of the nurse. These plans can help decrease safety events and poor outcomes.
Payors also benefit from processes that include nursing self-care. Patient outcomes have been linked to nursing job satisfaction, health, and retention (Crane & Ward, 2016). The decrease in patient injury, longer hospital stays, and turnover provides for more financial stability.
As nurses learn to care for themselves and turnover decreases, patients have more continuity of care. The patient can build rapport with their nurse, decreasing the patient’s stress while in the hospital or clinic. The nurses can give better care and therefore have better patient outcomes.
The nurse can feel like they have done what is required of them. They feel more job satisfaction. They have fewer missed days from work. They are less likely to look for new employment. All of these are reasons why the self-care of the nurse is so important.
References
Crane, P., & Ward, S. (2016). Self-healing and self-care for nurses. Association of perioperative Registered Nurses 104(5), 386-400. https://doi.org/10.1016.j.aorn.2016.09.007.
Mills, J., Wand, T., Fraser, J. (2018). Exploring the meaning and practice of self-care among palliative care nurses and doctors: A qualitative study. BioMed Central Palliative Care 17(63). DOI: 10.1186/S12904-018-0318-0.
Oliveira, S., Sousa, L., Gadelha, M., Nascimento, V. (2019). Prevention action of burnout syndrome in nurses: An integrating literature review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health 15, 64-73. Doi: 10.2174/1745017901915010064.