The Under-valued Leads of Healthcare Structure

Running head: NURSING
Workplace Factors like Bullying and Shift work Affecting Nurse’s Mental Health
Student Name
University Name
Author Note

1
NURSING
Workplace Factors like Bullying and Shift work Affecting Nurse’s Mental Health
Nurses are the under-valued leads of the healthcare structure. They are the pioneer
people in providing healthcare service to the world. They are barely given the deserved
acknowledgement for their efforts towards providing premium care to patients over the
world. Nurses perform their duty by taking responsibility of a range of patients from newborn
children to critically-ill old patients. It requires a lot of strength to choose the profession of
nursing. Emotional wellness of nurses in an important aspect that should be taken into
consideration. Nurses require little bit knowledge about all the medical subjects as they deal
with patients with a multitude of issues. They are entitled to provide with the best end-of-life
care to critically ill patients who are approaching death. Nurses have been observed to be
working insanely long shifts to provide support and relief to their team. In spite of being
tired, they always make it a priority to provide with the best care. They provide the patients
with holistic care, creating treatment plans, and assisting patients with their all-time needs. It
is sad to say that they are often disregarded in their profession regardless of which they
deliver the best care to the patients.
There are a lot of issues faced by the nursing community worldwide. Among the
problems, bullying and stress regarding the workload top the list. Workload is the primary
problem faced by the nursing professionals (Coventry et al., 2015). The amount of work
given to a nurse almost surpasses than the normal amount. During the peak season, there is no
official record of how much a nurse has worked. Overtime for the nurses is a common issue
that is faced worldwide. Another prevalent problem faced by the nursing community is the
constant bullying of nurses in their community by their peers (Allen et al., 2015). The
increase in bullying cases in Australia is reflected in the recent policies passed by the Nursing
and Midwifery Board of Australia (Cowin et al., 2019). Some attempts from the side of the
healthcare organizations have been done to reduce the cases of bullying on nurses in

2
NURSING
Australia. These studies are utilised in understanding the prevalence of the problem and must
be used to curb the problem from the root.
Nurses are obliged to work overtime due to inadequate supply of nurses, reduction in
patient length of stay, increased demand for nurses and reduced staffing and increased
overtime. The workload depends on the department a nurse is assigned to work (Hayes et al.,
2015). A typical general ward nurse will not be going through the same trauma as the nurse
assigned for the oncology department. The mental trauma is different for different
departments. The oncology department admits patients having different kinds of cancer. The
nurses deployed in this department are given special training so as to provide the patients
with the best care. The patients are emotionally drained by the severe medications being
administered to them. It is the nurse’s duty to provide the patient with holistic care for them
to have a good and homely experience in the hospital.
Inadequate supply of nurses hampers the professional ability of the nurse. The nurses
work overtime due to the relevant shortage and thus, lose the mandatory organizational
training to develop their skills further. When nurses work beyond their shift times, their
mental well-being is hindered. They lose their sleep in providing the best care to the patients
and work beyond their normal capacity. Failed acknowledgement from the governing body of
their sacrifices leads to dissatisfaction for the nurses which further escalates towards
resignation from the job. Organizational leadership is necessary to value the professional
development of the nurses for adequate nurse retention. The leadership abilities of the nurses
should be periodically assessed so as to make them efficient in giving the patients the holistic
care they need. This inadequate number of nurses in a hospital tests the competency of the
nurses in the medical environment.