Nurse Burnout and Patient Outcomes

Read the below paper from my colleague and Respond to it in one or more of the following ways:

Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.

Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.

Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom and/or from your own research.

Cite a minimum of two credible sources

the paper you need to read to write a response

Previously, in module three’s discussion post, I identified the issue of nurse burnout and its effects on compliance with Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) in the workplace. This research topic would likely need to have exploratory studies done to examine qualitative and quantitative data from the nurses and the patients in the sample population. I believe this topic warrants exploratory research because there are already established studies done on the topic; however, more data could be collected on different causes of burnout and its effect on specific types of patient outcomes.

Qualitative data could come from surveying nurses in high turnover areas in the hospital and collecting a general consensus of job satisfaction from the employees. This qualitative data collected through surveys and interviews could then be compared to quantitative data collection (Nieswiadomy & Bailey, 2018). For this example, data compilation could be done through experimental research with the cause being nurse burnout and the effect being decreased patient satisfaction or negative patient health outcomes. Nurse burnout in the unit being studied can be researched using qualitative research designs such as interviews and case studies (Nieswiadomy & Bailey, 2018). By interviewing staff, and asking them what they think could be improved in their workplace, a correlation to negative patient outcomes can be made based on their answers.

In this situation, a qualitative study would be appropriate to gather research if the nurses express in an interview they are burned out due to short staffing, a correlation can be made determining short staffing leads to negative patient outcomes. Qualitative data is based on phenomenology, which is studying the human experience and uses descriptive questions to obtain accurate information based on personal life events (Nieswiadomy & Bailey, 2018). The method of Narrative Inquiry could also be used for addressing the problem of burnout and negative patient experiences. This approach involves gathering stories and observing body language to give individual meaning to the research being done (Nieswiadomy & Bailey, 2018).

A qualitative study by Laschinger & Leiter (2006) was done on the topic of nurse burnout and patient outcomes. This study used questionnaires to collect data, the participation was anonymous and included a subset of nurses who had participated in a larger study previously that year researching a similar topic. The participants were sampled from across acute care hospital settings in Canada and results showed nurses who were dissatisfied with their work environment did indeed negatively affect patient outcomes. This study used qualitative methods to collect information and use an exploratory type of study to address the topic at hand of nurse burnout and patient outcomes, providing useful definitive data.
References:

Laschinger H.K & Leiter, M.P. (2006). The impact of nursing work environments on patient safety outcomes: the mediating role of burnout/engagement. Journal of Nursing Administration, 36(5):259-67.

doi: 10.1097/00005110-200605000-00019. PMID: 16705307.

Nieswiadomy, R. M. & Bailey, C. (2018). Foundations of nursing research (7th ed). Pearson