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COVID-19 has drawn attention to the intense challenges nurses face in their jobs — long hours, emotional stress, significant workloads, and responsibility, to name a few. The undeniable fortitude and endurance of nurses is inspiring. Given their demanding work, nurses need support that prioritizes their physical and mental well-being and helps prevent nurse burnout. 

Common Symptoms of Nurse Burnout

Nurses experiencing burnout typically begin to dread their jobs because they feel fatigued, overextended, and underappreciated. Such feelings result in various physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms:

Physical Symptoms of Nurse Burnout

• Problems sleeping
• Greater incidents of illness
• Anxiety
• Body pains
• Headaches
• Increase or loss of appetite

Emotional Symptoms of Nurse Burnout

• Negativism
• A sense of helplessness
• Feeling of self-doubt
• Dissatisfaction in life and career

Behavioral Symptoms of Nurse Burnout

• Increased absences from work
• Tendencies to isolate and withdraw
• Poor decision-making
• Substance abuse

Causes of Nurse Burnout

Several factors contribute to nurse burnout, including:

Heavy Workloads and Long Hours

Dealing with high-pressured situations hour after hour makes it especially difficult for nurses to care for patients. Such circumstances leave nurses exhausted and more likely to make mistakes. Mistakes lead to frustration for patients, as well as for nurses, who want to deliver a high standard of care. Furthermore, mistakes can be dangerous or even fatal, and the high stakes involved create significant stress.

Research has consistently shown that longer nurse work hours correlate with less satisfied patients. This has a negative impact on how nurses feel about themselves and their work.

Additionally, heavy workloads and long hours affect nurses’ ability to maintain a work-life balance. A lack of equilibrium in their lives prevents nurses from replenishing their energy and regrouping their thoughts.

Unsupportive Work Environments

When management excludes nurses from decision-making processes, they often feel undervalued. Such exclusions disempower nurses and rob them of the professional autonomy clinicians with extensive training and knowledge deserve.

Ineffective leadership can also result in staffing issues and an overall sense of insufficient support among nurses. Altogether, these elements can decrease satisfaction at work and make nurses more prone to burnout.

Emotional Strain

A nurse’s ongoing exposure to illness and death can become overwhelming if not properly managed. Nurses treat sick and dying patients; they also provide emotional support to those patients and their families. This can prove very taxing over time and can lead to nurse burnout.

How Crises Fuel Nurse Burnout

Crises, such as COVID-19, exacerbate the rates of burnout among healthcare professionals. The emotional and physical stress created by the greater demands on their time and skills, as well as the increased exposure to death and suffering, deepens the level of distress nurses experience.

A recent study from the Well-Being Index found that approximately 37% to 50% of nurses reported increased and significantly increased workloads due to COVID-19. These increases correlated with high levels of distress among nurses. In fact, approximately 70% of nurses reported high levels of distress due to the workload of the pandemic.

Nurse leaders and healthcare organizations must address nurse burnout if they hope to succeed in today’s healthcare environment. While managing existing nurse burnout requires immediate attention, the ultimate goal should be prevention.

A failure to prevent nurse burnout results in:

• Safety incidents caused by overwhelmed nurses
• Staffing shortfalls caused by poor retention
• Dissatisfied patients who received low-quality care

Preventing these problems will also prevent their potentially more serious consequences.

The Impact of Nurse Burnout

Nurse burnout harms patients and, in turn, healthcare organizations. The distress nurses experience hinders their performance, which can reduce the level of care they deliver and even put patients in danger. 

For example, disengaged, exhausted nurses can inadvertently administer incorrect medication or dosages, deliver impersonal care, or record important medical data inaccurately. Nurse burnout also influences how well nurses collaborate with their peers and convey information to other clinicians.

Nurses experiencing burnout struggle to work efficiently or effectively in teams and less frequently mentor other nurses. Nurse burnout also influences how often nurses call in sick. The symptomatic fatigue and frustration of nurse burnout can result in a lack of good judgment in patient care and a poor bedside manner as well.

Feelings of cynicism or inefficacy may lead nurses to show insufficient sensitivity or compassion toward their patients. Nurses may fail to personalize care, and patients may find them indifferent and uncaring.

Nurses and nurse leaders can work to prevent nurse burnout by adopting key strategies. Consider the following tips:

Implement Methods of Measuring and Monitoring Staff Stress

To prevent nurse burnout, nurse leaders need to understand the level of stress their staff members experience. This allows them to properly respond. By measuring and monitoring staff stress, healthcare organizations can better develop and implement appropriate interventions.

Surveys that ask nurses about various job-related dimensions of well-being, such as their professional engagement, feelings of burnout, and professional satisfaction, supply nurse leaders with valuable information. Such tools give insight into how an organization can best promote resilience among its nursing staff and what specific types of support nurses may need.

Prioritize Physical and Mental Health

Nurses must prioritize their own personal physical and mental health to avoid burnout. To start, nurses can engage in practices that build their resilience to the inevitable challenges of their work. That means finding tools that help them adapt to and face adversity.

For instance, nurses can use practices such as yoga, meditation, and journal writing to help them release stress, work through frustration, and create balance in their lives. These activities can offer both physical and mental benefits. Nurses can also commit to exercise routines and nutritious eating habits that safeguard their wellness and keep them agile and energized.

Nurse leaders must focus on building work environments that promote nurse health and well-being. This effort involves implementing programs that support wellness, such as mindfulness and resilience training. They can also develop other types of resources that help nurses manage their stress. For example, mentoring programs can help nurses find the encouragement and guidance they need to respond to challenges and not experience burnout.

Create Empowering Work Environments

Work cultures that foster openness and empower nurses help prevent nurse burnout. Access to information, resources, and the decision-making process not only allows nurses to perform their work better but also gives them opportunities to grow professionally and feel valued. This increases their engagement and job satisfaction, two important factors in preventing nurse burnout.

Programs that reward and recognize accomplishments help validate nurses. Nurse leaders can create a platform for nurses to share opinions and contribute to decision-making. This can boost the meaning of a nurse’s work. Leadership that recognizes nurses’ value increases motivation and builds confidence, which also staves off burnout.

Nurse leaders who, in the interest of promoting innovation, show flexibility regarding bureaucratic restrictions also empower nurses. For example, nurse leaders can communicate to their staff members that they invite new ideas regarding policies and protocols.

This attitude gives nurses a green light for inventing creative ways to improve efficiency or solve problems. As a result, nurses feel greater ownership in their work, which can decrease burnout.

While the nursing profession offers many rewards, the challenges it presents can lead to nurse burnout. However, with thoughtful strategies that prioritize nurse well-being and empowerment, nurse leaders can not only manage but also prevent nurse burnout. 

Learn more about how ÑÇÉ«Ó°¿â’s nursing programs equip graduates with the tools needed to support nurses and prevent burnout.  

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