Problems with Excessive Workload Amongst Healthcare Staff and Potential Solutions

This essay discusses the problems faced by healthcare staff due to excessive workload and potential solutions to address them. Excessive workload leads to worker burnout, poor wellbeing, and decreased quality and safety of patient care. Interventions like person-directed and organizational approach, physician-related interventions, and work-life balance can help reduce burnout. Partnering with educational institutions and offering employee assistance programs can also help improve employee wellbeing.

Discuss the problems with
excessive workload
amongst healthcare staff
and suggest some
potential solutions

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
In present era, chronic overwork hosts unsavoury issues among healthcare staff. Healthcare
sector is most demanding line of work in which workforce met with obstacles and problems that
makes navigation of the arena frustrating (Perreira, Berta and Herbert, 2018). Regardless of the
sector, people carry contribute to their best level when they are able to practice at peak
performances. While, every workplace has certain issues, including communication problem,
technology gaps, interpersonal conflicts and many more, working in healthcare has own set of
problems. The present essay discusses about problems with excessive workload amongst
employees in healthcare industry and some potential solutions.
MAIN BODY
Excessive workload arises when a person has far huge working for handling on own. In
healthcare, excessive workload profoundly affect mood together with productivity. As healthcare
staff while carrying out practices faces ample kinds of psychological stressors in situation of
excessive workload, one of problem that is faced by them is high level of worker burnout that in
turn affects outcomes of healthcare establishments in form of quality addition to safety
concerned with provided care. Worker burnout is specific category of work related stress
including a state of emotional or physical exhaustion which comprises loss of personal identity
along with sense of reduced accomplishments (Yeatts and Et. Al., 2018). It is characterised by
dimensions entailing feeling of exhaustion, feeling of cynicism associated with one’s job along
with increased mental distance from one’s job. Moreover, burnout defines negative work
concerned behaviour among healthcare staff which is made up of facets like low personal
accomplishment, emotional exhaustion with practices and disengagement from patients.
In accordance to Cheney (2021), burnout rates among healthcare workers ranges from 40%
to 70% (Cheney, 2021). Among this, nursing burnout is specifically alarming, with various
nurses retiring early as well as younger nurses leaving profession with turnover rates among 30%
and 60% in new graduates. At healthcare establishments, staff member working on psychiatric
wards are reported higher level of burnouts against employees working in surgical and internal
medicine wards. In aspect to mental healthcare staff, causes of burnout overlap with those of
employees in other areas. In general, key causes of burnout among healthcare workers are
overwhelming amount of advanced technologies, clunky workflow epidemic, restricted
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opportunities for developing skill set and so on. In aspect to workforce carrying out practices in
mental healthcare services, causes of burnout are overall loss of control, excessive workload,
long hour working and sleep deprivation, lack of support, poor leadership, inadequate staffing
and hence forth. If workforce burnout is left unaddressed at workplace, it can result in short term
productivity, long term healthcare costs along with employee retention.
From the statements of Savaya, Levin and Roziner (2021), it is analysed that mental
health services in a country are chronically underfunded (Savaya, Levin and Roziner, 2021).
There are ample number of differences among mental health services to that of other healthcare
services that accounts differences in groups in form of emotional labour to provide care to
mentally well patients against their willingness, involuntary detentions, caring of patients that
can harm to own and high violence levels. The outcomes of healthcare services which are
stretched beyond resources that places huge demand together with creates stressful and
pressurised work environment.
Poor wellbeing is another problem faced by healthcare staff because of excessive
workloads at establishments, long working hours, lack of psychological safety or moral conflicts
at workplace. It is associated with their mental health where they find it difficult to think, feel or
act appropriately due to distress (Jensen and Bonde, 2018). Poor wellbeing of healthcare staff is
caused due to emotional labour of caring for mentally unwell patients, indulging in high level of
violences, retaining patients against their will or taking care of patients who may self-harm
themselves. It may also result in decreasing quality and safety of patients.
Treating mental healthcare patients requires high degree of emotional involvement with
patients for a long period of time resulting in causing poor wellbeing in healthcare staff and high
rate of depression cases. Poor wellbeing can have negative impact on staff professionalism,
efficiency and overall quality of life (Jerrim and Sims, 2021). Reducing wellbeing of staff leads
to worsen quality of patient care, increase safety concerns and maximise costs incurred because
of staff absence. Poor wellbeing even rises the chances of staff turnover for a year. Not
supporting healthcare staff's wellbeing may become an over exploited route to improve patient
healthcare.
In aspect to worker burnout, intervention is effective solution. Appropriate interventions
have greater possibilities for reducing burnout among workforce and leads to promoting quality
of services that are provided at hospitals, clinics and other healthcare places. Worker burnout is
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complex issue that can be treated with combination of interventions (Sage, 2019). In healthcare
establishment, interventions to solve burnout are categorised as person directed and
organisational approach. Person directed interventions comprises psychological interventions
including mindfulness groups, cognitive behavior therapy as well as counselling. It offers
distinctive along with systematic means so to address user experience related to intended
behavior change. While, organisation directed intervention entails work scheduling changes,
teamwork training addition to educational interventions. The system has wider chances to reduce
workload, increase role of healthcare professional decision making, improve teamwork along
with change schedules. The other kind of intervention for solving burnout is physician related
that promotes mindfulness as well as aims for enhancing resilience among healthcare staff for
improving competency, communication and coping mechanisms.
Intervention serves as foundation along with crucial phase in treating burnout. It improves
communication among workforce addition to expands responsibilities of team in healthcare
establishments. Expansion of roles of healthcare professionals takes day to day burden off and
improves satisfaction, reduces stress and so that that treats burnout very well. It is important to
support intervention which links universities with healthcare organizations because it helps
develop insight into the ways in which the crisis of burnout in healthcare employees can be
managed. By connecting with educational institutions healthcare organizations can look into the
promising solutions and practices which can help reduce employee burnout and also understand
the root cause of imply burn out for different healthcare positions. This will help develop proper
intervention practices which can be used for eliminating the main cause of employee burnout in
healthcare and ensuring that they are able to focus on their work but dedication while also
managing the stress of working in a healthcare institution.
Another suitable solution for managing employee burnout in healthcare institutions is to
provide employees ways off managing work life balance so that they are able to perform their
personal commitments while also completing their daily professional duties. This is an effective
solution when it comes to reducing employee burnout in healthcare organizations as they are able
to create schedules for attaining their personal objectives while also being on time for completing
their responsibilities at the healthcare institution (Xu and Et. Al., 2021). Developing work life
balance for each employee involves implementing policies which support flexible working hours
and help each individual healthcare employee voice their concerns on working hours so that they
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are able to adjust they are professional and personal commitments accordingly without
hampering the output of healthcare institution.
It is recommended to encourage employees to use their lives and vacations so that they are
able to focus on their personal life and also get distractions from the stressful working hours
completing their healthcare duties. This is a suitable recommendation because it will not only
help the company reduce burnout without affecting workload as employee leaves will be planned
but also provide employees better satisfaction while working at the healthcare institution. It is
suggested to offer employee assistance programs so that they are able to manage their stress
during the hectic working hours of the healthcare industry and are able to cope with the
responsibilities of providing healthcare services to individuals. This type of employee assistance
programs need to look into the career development of healthcare staff and also support them in
improving their mental health so that they are able to getting better satisfaction from their job
and their burnout decreases.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determine that employees and healthcare institutions face various
challenges which leads to eventual burnout. This is a complex and common situation which
needs to be treated immediately in order to prepare a talented and committed workforce for
healthcare institutions. The steps which can be taken to improve poor well-being so that but not
in healthcare employee reduces involve partnering with educational institution to gain insight on
preparing specific intervention needed for reducing employee burnout. In addition to this
flexible working hour and offering work life balance is another suitable step which can be taken
to reduce burnout.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Jensen, A. and Bonde, L. O., 2018. The use of arts interventions for mental health and wellbeing
in health settings. Perspectives in public health. 138(4). pp.209-214.
Jerrim, J. and Sims, S., 2021. When is high workload bad for teacher wellbeing? Accounting for
the non-linear contribution of specific teaching tasks. Teaching and Teacher
Education. 105. p.103395.
Perreira, T .A., Berta, W. and Herbert, M., 2018. The employee retention triad in health care:
Exploring relationships amongst organisational justice, affective commitment and
turnover intention. Journal of clinical nursing. 27 (7-8). pp.e1451-e1461.
Sage, D., 2019. Unemployment, wellbeing and the power of the work ethic: Implications for
social policy. Critical Social Policy. 39(2). pp.205-228.
Savaya, R., Levin, L. and Roziner, I., 2021. Social workers in Israel: Daily stressors, work
benefits, burnout and well-being. The British Journal of Social Work. 51(1). pp.318-
339.
Xu, H. G. and Et. Al., 2021. A mobile mindfulness intervention for emergency department staff
to improve stress and wellbeing: A qualitative study. International Emergency
Nursing. 58. p.101039.
Yeatts, D.E. and Et. Al., 2018. Burnout among direct‐care workers in nursing homes: Influences
of organisational, workplace, interpersonal and personal characteristics. Journal of
Clinical Nursing. 27(19-20). pp.3652-3665.
Online:
Cheney. C. 2021. Expert: Healthcare Worker Burnout Trending in an Alarming Direction.
[Online]. Available through: <https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/expert-
healthcare-worker-burnout-trending-alarming-direction>
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