Burnout in Sleep-Deprived Nurses Because of Long Shifts
The human body is capable of producing and exerting large amounts of force and effort. Unfortunately, the body does not have the ability to function for perpetual amounts of time. In the medical world or hospital setting, the medical staff of these facilities are required to work for long periods of time, which can, without a doubt, take a significant toll on their body.
The world has no pause button; therefore, the daily and nightly occurrences of life can severely affect an individual negatively. With that being said, the hospital and emergency room remain functional despite whatever circumstances. To maintain this gigantic amount of medical demand, hundreds of thousands of nurses across the world work to provide health services to the sick.
In any instance, working for longer than 30 hours a week can cause great stress on an individual. The nursing environment is at the border line of what would be considered chaotic, so added stress to an already tense environment would not be beneficial to the workplace or to the community. Other countries have examined this issue and have developed a process to work around this issue.
Sleep deprivation is one of the leading causes for several work related and human related accidents. The absence of sleep can create health issues as well. These health issues also effect the work ethic of the nursing staff in a negative degree when left unattended.
Understanding sleep deprivation
From the onset of nature, sleep is a device that just about every living organism needs to function. Sleep deprivation restricts oxygen to the brain, as the body now has to work harder to exert energy. As far as sleep goes, every individual has a specific pattern in which they achieve rest, almost as if the body has an internal clock.
Sleep is the natural regulator of the body because it allows the brain, or the control center of the body to process its involuntary actions. Sleep deprivation and burnout has grown prevalent among the nursing community. A handful of nurses at risk for sleep deprivation or shift related burnout were examined by researchers to determine how the tiredness of the nursing staff effects the functionality of these nurses.
However, the study used too small of a sample of nurses, which makes it very difficult to draw any conclusions. Shift related burnout has been seen in truck drivers and military workers. If this issue is driving nurses towards a negative direction, then the amount of sleep deprivation and burnout needs to be reduced.
Why Does this Effect Nurses more?
Burnout comes from overworking the body as well as removing sleep from an individual’s normal routine. Essentially, burnout is exactly what it sounds like in reference to how much energy an individual possesses. Nurses have only so much energy to exert before they are unable to conduct work properly.
Under normal circumstances, if an individual is exhausted, they have the prerogative to allow themselves to rest. Despite this, nursing is one of the several unfortunate professions that require someone to work well past their anticipated limits. Outside of sleep deprivation, there are other factors that can create burnout in a nurse, and it can ultimately lead to dissatisfaction among patients, more medical errors, and increased rate of infections.
The mindset and attitude of a person is heavily dependent on how much sleep they get, as well as how decent a person takes care of their own body. With an attitude dictated by exhaustion, dealing with high maintenance people such as medical patients can become difficult for a nurse to manage. Other studies have produced data from nurses that manage to sustain themselves for prolonged periods of time.
These tests were created to represent the effects of burnout on nurses, yet at the same time, no innocent individual should be put through this level of stress. A majority of the nurses in the workplace thoroughly enjoy and love their job positions. Yet, these individuals still need sleep to be functional members in the medical world, making sleep deprivation a serious issue for the rest of society.
How to Prevent Sleep Deprivation in Nurses?
Sleep burnout and sleep deprivation are incredibly subjective when referring to the professional world. For some employers, the effects of sleep deprivation are not always visible in the lives of their employees, and it's also difficult to see if the amount of sleep an employee gets is the issue. Either way, sleep burnout and sleep deprivation coexist hand in hand, working together to disrupt an individual's internal clock.
Sleep deprivation can also become a cause or gateway for more serious and life-threatening sleep disorders and can make them rely on sleep medications more often and have daytime impairment. Nurses are still human beings, meaning that these individuals are not exempt from the conditions that ravage the world. Sleep deprivation and burnout from work related stress can negatively affect the nurses with medical issues even more so.
A recent study developed a potential shift related solution known as a “long cycle.” In the study, “60 percent of the nurses worked a so-called “long cycle” with two morning shifts, followed by two afternoon shifts, two-night shifts, and three days off. The rest worked what researchers called a “short cycle” with one morning shift, one afternoon shift, one-night shift and then two days off.” With a short cycle, nurses have much more time to rest and gain the sleep they need to help their patients get healthier as well. A short cycle also creates a new reason to increase the nursing staff level of the medical world. Sleep is necessary for everyone to lead a productive life, and this fact includes nurses.
Sleep is essential when referring to a functional and healthy lifestyle. Sleep deprivation is also extremely harmful when left unattended or untreated for extended periods of time. In the medical world, the personnel and staff members that construct the hospital setting are required to work for several hours at a time without much rest. To expand on that note, “52 percent of the nurses reported sleep difficulties and 31 percent reported feelings of career burnout.” Sleep has always been wildly considered the reset button of the human body.
During sleep, an individual has the opportunity to allow their cells to regenerate or heal the damaged or worn areas of the body. Burnout in nurses is directly linked to how much sleep these individuals get on a regular basis.
In human beings, sleep is of the utmost importance, and several hospitals have forgotten that nurses are in fact humans. Even in a professional setting, an individual has several thoughts and feelings that need to come across coherently. Nurses take up a bulk of the damage caused by the understaffed conditions created by the hospitals in which they work at.
Nurses need to concentrate on their tasks as much as they can while working. However, the concentration levels of an individual can be affected as a result of sleep deprivation and burnout. With longer nursing shifts, two major effects occur. First and foremost, the nursing staff of the hospital will become fatigued from how much they push themselves. The second effect is more vital, as it disrupts the care for those that are in the hospital itself. With tired nurses, no one can get well without a serious inconvenience.
