Historic and Current View of the Trends About Nurse Burnout

Nurse Burnout Intervention as a Healthcare Administrator Leader
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Nurse Burnout Intervention as a Healthcare Administrator Leader 2.3.1. Historic and Current Business Problem Trends Approximately one-half of physicians and one-third of nurses across the United States’ healthcare system experience symptoms of burnout (Reith, 2018). According to Reith (2018), burnout in the United States’ healthcare professionals is almost double that of workers in other occupations. De Oliveira (2021) also finds the United States one of the countries with the highest rates of nurse burnout globally. The symptoms of burnout witnessed across the healthcare system in the United States and around the world include exhaustion, inefficiency in the delivery of care, and cynicism (Diehl, 2021). Kelly (2021) reiterates the adverse effects of burnout in the nursing profession, citing job dysfunction, the potential risk of harming patients, and personal issues as some of its implications. In essence, burnout affects healthcare professionals or practitioners and threatens the healthcare organization’s efficiency in providing quality care (Kelly, 2021). The increasing rate of burnout in healthcare further leads to job dissatisfaction among healthcare professionals and a subsequent increase in turnovers (Rudman, 2020). The overall impact of burnout on healthcare organizations, practitioners, and patients necessitates developing and implementing effective interventional measures. Past scholarly and practitioner articles highlight some of the measures taken by healthcare providers and other stakeholders across the healthcare system to provide a lasting solution to burnout in healthcare settings. Henry (2014), for instance, provides a comprehensive approach to identifying the key areas for potential burnout among healthcare professionals and the possible solutions through which healthcare leaders and practitioners alike can formulate an integrated intervention for reducing burnout. Participation in expressive writing among healthcare professionals makes for one of the proposed interventions outlined by Adams (2010) that proves vital in developing effective interventional measures in the current healthcare system. On-site and off-site retreats for employee assistance programs are other burnout interventions that produce positive outcomes among healthcare professionals, patients, and the organization (Aycock, 2009). Off-site retreats characterized by different experiential break-out sessions come forth as an effective intervention to promote self-care and mindfulness among healthcare professionals to reduce burnout (Bauer-Wu, 2005). The participation of healthcare professionals in compassion fatigue resilience programs organized by their leaders and the management of their healthcare facilities and organizations also plays a significant role in reducing burnout among care practitioners (Potter, 2013). Efforts to develop effective interventions against burnout among healthcare professionals require analyzing and evaluating existing and past interventional measures. An effective burnout intervention measure is characteristic of a holistic prevention capability.  Such an intervention should not focus on addressing the problem from the perspective of a single healthcare practice such as nursing or physicians. Instead, an integrated approach should be used to identify the areas of need to develop a comprehensive care system for healthcare professionals against burnout. Henry (2014) incorporates some of the past burnout interventions to identify areas of potential burnout and suggests possible solutions to the same. Recent scholarly works such as Dall’Ora (2020) propose a shift from the traditional perception of burnout as an outcome in nursing to addressing it as a major problem in delivering quality healthcare. Aryankhesal (2019) emphasizes the importance of embracing appropriate i...