Burnout Among Healthcare Staff: Problems, Solutions, and Future Trends

This report delves into the critical issue of burnout among healthcare staff, defining it as a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal achievement. The report identifies two primary problems stemming from burnout: decreased quality of care and patient safety, and high staff turnover and absenteeism. It explores these problems in detail, referencing supporting studies and research. The report then proposes two potential solutions: creating a healthy and flexible work environment, including on-call rooms, relaxation spaces, and flexible work options; and offering effective training and development sessions, focusing on leadership skills, conflict resolution, and support after critical incidents. The report concludes by recommending a healthy and flexible working environment as the best practice for reducing burnout and predicts an intensification of burnout in the future due to various global challenges, emphasizing the need for proactive interventions.

Research skills

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
Definition or scope of the essay.............................................................................................1
Extent of the problem.............................................................................................................1
Thesis statement.....................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................1
Problem – 1.............................................................................................................................1
Problem – 2.............................................................................................................................2
Solution – 1.............................................................................................................................2
Solution – 2.............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................4
Summary of the problems and solutions................................................................................4
Recommendation for the best practice...................................................................................4
Prediction for future...............................................................................................................4
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Definition or scope of the essay
Burnout is being defined as a syndrome being featured by emotional tiredness that
leads to depersonalization issues and reduced personal achievement at the workplace. It is
very important to comprehend the causes of burnout for the purpose of finding out some
effective solutions. Considering this, the main aim of the current research report is to discuss
the problems being caused due to burnout between healthcare employees. further, the report
will also be going to throw some light on possible solutions for the issues determined.
Extent of the problem
As explained above, burnout is the emotional exhaustion of any individual which
might result in tiredness, mental and physical disorder and many other issues. The health care
workers who are emotional exhausted is overwhelmed by loads of work which makes them
feel tiered, became unbale to meet the demand of their work and also does not have capacity
to engage with others (Johnson and et.al., 2017). Considering the current health crisis because
of the covid19, the health care staff members are more exposed to physical as well as mental
exhaustion also called as burnout. Furthermore, burnout among the health care staff is being
regarded as the critical issue because it leads to inefficiency of the workers and organizations
in which they work. Such type of behaviour is not good for the well-being of the patients as
well. Thus, this issue is quite serious and required to have attention so that it can be resolved
successfully.
Thesis statement
The main problem that will be discussed in the current work is related to burnout, its
related issues and solutions and thus, the thesis statement will be “To evaluate the problems
being caused by burnout among the health care staff and suggesting some potential solutions
for resolving the determined issues”.
MAIN BODY
Problem – 1
Speaking in volume in relation with burnout, it is being defined as the poor well-bring
in the healthcare staff. this problem is increasing at a fast pace in the present world. It
designates the negative work-related attitudes which are being made up of three important
aspects that is emotional tiredness, lower personal achievement and depersonalization from
the patients. It might result into different issues or problems, however the most important
1

among them is quality of care and safety of the patients (Bianchi, Schonfeld and Laurent,
2017). The burnout of the health care staffs and well-being is directly related with both the
patient safety as well as quality of care. As per the current review, it has been originated that
22 out of 27 studies have found out an important connection amid the poor well-being as well
as poorer safety results. Further, it has been also reported that higher degree of burnout has
resulted into augmented adverse events at the healthcare institutions. Even, when employees
are burnout, they do not personalize with the patient and this in turn result into poor
satisfaction level of the patients. In addition to this, it is very important to comprehend the
manners in which burnout influence the safety and quality of care of the patients (Hagen,
Knizek and Hjelmeland, 2017). To this, it can be said that since the healthcare staff are over
invested by the resources and this lack of return of investment is the major cause of their
burnout. Thus, further leads to negative attitude towards the patients which impacts care
quality.
Problem – 2
Other than the above, there is one more important problem which is being caused due
to burnout between the health care staff and it is high level of staff turnover and absenteeism.
Both the terms that is employee turnover and absenteeism are directly related with each other.
different studies have found that the annual turnover of the nurses is around 15 to 44 percent.
Burnout is being regarded as the consistent risk factor for the high level of absenteeism and
turnover of the health care staff due to emotional exhaustion. Turnover proves very costly to
the organizations. this is because of the fact that it involves different processes such as
temporary replacement, new recruitment and training and development. The estimated cost
nurse lost and replaces are quite high. In addition to this, according to Denning and et.al.
(2021), high level of turnover in the organization is also not good for the quality of the health
care for the patients. It has a negative influence on the service delivery which in turn proves
quite risky for the safety and well-being of the patients. Other than this, different studies have
also found out that high level of turnover between the healthcare staff might translate into
actual turnover. Moreover, increased level of burnout is also predicated to have increased
contract terminations. Thus, it becomes important to adopt the practices that helps in reducing
the burnout among the healthcare staffs and efforts should be made on making improvement
in their mental well-being (Hall and et.al., 2017).
2

Solution – 1
Considering the reports of augmenting burnout along with the stress level among the
healthcare staff, employees leaving the job because of the emotional exhaustion and
intensification of these issues in mental healthcare providers, executing burnout interventions
in healthcare settings is very important. One possible solution for the problem caused by the
burnout is creating healthy environment and allowing flexibility. It is important on the part of
the human resource managers of the organizations to cerate a physical location or
environment where each and every desire to go and after coming gets relaxed (Gask, 2015).
There should be on-call room where the healthcare staff can sleep and relax during the time
of heavy workloads. In addition to this, a relaxation room should also be there where they can
meditate and just sit in silence which will help in their mental peace.
Workout classes must be sponsored by the organization. canteen at the workplace
must be equipped with healthy snacks, water, coffee, creamer and tea. Communication and
trust must be fostered and encouraged. Other than this, it is also important to make sure that
flexibility should be allowed to the health care and medical employees as they have their own
family, kids and friends (Søvold and et.al., 2021). Working from home, shifts and other job
options should be provided so that they can maintain their own mental health and take care of
their patient effectively. implementing this, will help in lesser amount of burnout of the
healthcare workers which will result in better quality of care and safety of the patient.
Solution – 2
Another potential solution for reducing the level of burnout among the healthcare
workers is offering effective training and development sessions. As per the studies being
conducted by Rodrigues and et.al. (2016), it has been found out that job training is one of the
major causes of burnout among the workers. Lack of adequate training and co-workers
supports might cause burnout among the healthcare employees. thus, it is important that the
firm should make arrangements for effective training and development sessions for the
healthcare staff on some of the important topics or areas, for example reduction coercive
practices, de-escalation of violence, management of self-harm and suicide risk, offering better
quality to the patient at times of heavy loads etc. Other than this, it is also important to train
the managers in regards with the leadership skills as this will also help in offering right
direction to the workers.
Further, efforts should be made on having effective supervision as this will help the
healthcare staff to sense a feeling that they are being cared by their employers and they will
3

employ their best efforts to render best services. They will start trusting their manager which
will probably reduce their rate of absenteeism and turnover. Moving further, as stated by
Rotenstein and et.al. (2018), it is also important that support for the healthcare employees
after the incidents have taken place should be improved. This is due to the fact that many a
times, the frontline employees are required to have support in coping the influence of some
bad or severe incidents. Thus, counselling as well as support should be provided to them.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the problems and solutions
Thus, from the above evaluation it can be said that there are two important problems
which are being caused by burnout between the healthcare staff that is decreased quality of
care and safety of the patients and high turnover and absenteeism among the workers. Two
potential solutions have been offered to reduce the level of burnout among the healthcare
staff and that is offering training and development and creating health and flexible working
environment.
Recommendation for the best practice
From the above analysis, it can be said that the best practice for reducing the level of
burnout between the healthcare staff is offering healthy, conducive, supportive and flexible
working environment. It has been also found out that burnout is a critical issue and thus, it is
important on the part of health care institutions to work on this and adopt certain important
interventions.
Prediction for future
Burnout among the healthcare staff is predicted to get intensified in the coming future
due to uncertain conditions being linked with the impact of the climate change, global
warming, pandemics and other unforeseeable circumstances. Health and its related issues are
rising due to these factors which will pose challenge on the health care staff. thus, efforts
should be made towards planning greater and better interventions.
4

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bianchi, R., Schonfeld, I.S. and Laurent, E., 2017. Physician burnout is better conceptualised
as depression. The Lancet. 389. pp.1397–1398.
Denning, M., Goh, E.T., Tan, B., Kanneganti, A., Almonte, M. and Scott, A., 2021.
Determinants of burnout and other aspects of psychological well-being in healthcare
workers during the Covid-19 pandemic: a multinational cross-sectional study. PLoS
ONE. 16. pp. e0238666.
Gask, L., 2015. The Other Side of Silence: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir of Depression.
Chichester: Summersdale Publishers LTD-ROW.
Hagen, J., Knizek, B.L. and Hjelmeland, H., 2017. Mental health nurses’ experiences of
caring for suicidal patients in psychiatric wards: An emotional endeavour. Archives of
Psychiatric Nursing. 31. pp.31–37.
Hall, L.H., Johnson, J., Heyhoe, J., Watt, I., Anderson, K. and O’Connor, D.B., 2017.
Exploring the impact of primary care physician burnout and wellbeing on patient care:
A focus group study. Journal of Patient Safety.
Johnson, J., Hall, L. H., Berzins, K., Baker, J., Melling, K. and Thompson, C. 2017. Mental
healthcare staff well-being and burnout: A narrative review of trends, causes,
implications, and recommendations for future interventions. International Journal of
Mental Health Nursing. 27(1). pp.20-32.
Rodrigues, H., Cobucci, R., Oliveira, A., Cabral, J.V., Medeiros, L. and Gurgel, K., 2016.
Burnout syndrome among medical residents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
PLoS ONE. 3. p.e0206840.
Rotenstein, L.S., Torre, M., Ramos, M.A., Rosales, R.C., Guille, C. and Sen S., 2018.
Prevalence of Burnout Among Physicians: A Systematic Review. JAMA. 320. pp.1131–
50.
Søvold, L.E., Naslund, J.A., Kousoulis, A.A., Saxenam, S., Qoronfleh, M.W. and Grobler,
C., 2021. Prioritizing the mental health and well-being of healthcare workers: an urgent
global public health priority. Front Public Health. 9. pp.514.
5