Developing Organizational Policies and Practices Competing Needs Impacting Nurse Burnout

As a for-profit healthcare organization, realizing the financial benefits of the facility’s shareholders is the organization’s main goal. This means cutting down on expenses and other operating costs. On the other hand, to reduce and manage nurse burnout and its impacts on the organization, the management will need to invest in improving the work environment and employee satisfaction. Providing nurses with financial incentives and improved pay for their services is linked to improved nurse satisfaction and retention of nurses (Pahlevan Sharif et al., 2023). Of concern are the increased operational costs due to paid incentives and investments made to improve the work environment, such as the employment of extra nursing staff, and the impacts such solutions have on profit expectations. This creates a conflict between the profitability of the facility and the need to resolve nurse burnout.

As client satisfaction is another competing need, the organization will seek to ensure that the services provided meet the quality and safety expectations of the facility’s clients. The consumer’s perception of the brand image and quality of services provided is linked to patient satisfaction and the profitability of the organization (Vimla & Taneja, 2020). To achieve this, the organization ensures the nurses work hard to meet these customer expectations. This may contribute to the development of mental and physical exhaustion. Considering the wider context and impact of nurse burnout and nurse satisfaction on improving patient satisfaction, the hospital will be required to invest in strategies that help meet the needs of the nursing staff to better achieve patient satisfaction.

Organizational Policy or Practice that may Influence Nurse Burnout

The organization I work for has employed various practices and policies to deal with nurse burnout. One of the most notable practices to manage burnout has been the adoption of an improved electronic health records (EHR) system. As noted within the organization, the use of EHR systems, if not well managed, can contribute to nurse burnout. However, the organization has invested time and resources to improve the usability of the EHR systems to achieve optimum nursing operations. EHR usability has been observed to improve nurse experiences, including reducing cognitive exhaustion and burnout as well as patient outcomes (Kutney-Lee et al., 2021).

Critique for Ethical Considerations in Policy or Practices

The use of EHR in nursing presents various ethical concerns and challenges for promoting ethics. There are a number of privacy and safety concerns over the use of electronic systems in health care. This may lead to patients withholding their personal information, which may impact health planning. A challenge in ensuring the ethical use of EHR systems is the concern over the accessibility of information from anywhere. This may be a risk for data theft or unauthorized sharing of patient information by some providers. It further makes it hard to ensure the privacy of patient information.

Recommendations for Practice Changes to Balance the Competing Needs

All of the competing needs are important to the ability of my healthcare organization to meet its vision and mission, provide safe and quality care services, and meet the needs of nursing staff. To ensure that the organization is able to balance the competing needs, there is a need to focus on integrating system-wide use of technology to support nursing operations and training the nurses on how to best use the technology. The technology adopted should also adopt a simplified user interface to reduce instances of technology-related burnout.

 References

Kutney-Lee, A., Brooks Carthon, M., Sloane, D. M., Bowles, K. H., McHugh, M. D., & Aiken, L. H. (2021). Electronic Health Record Usability: Associations with Nurse and Patient Outcomes in Hospitals. Medical Care, 59(7), 625. https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001536