MOD006960 Skills for Higher Education: Problems of Healthcare Workload

This essay addresses the significant problems arising from excessive workloads among healthcare staff, focusing on its detrimental impact on performance and the increased incidence of anxiety, depression, and mental stress. The proposed solutions include prioritizing tasks and focusing on one activity at a time to enhance performance, as well as acknowledging hard work and encouraging breaks to alleviate stress and improve overall well-being. The essay concludes with recommendations for best practices, such as splitting tasks and limiting multitasking, and predicts that implementing these strategies will lead to improved organizational functioning and productivity within healthcare settings. The essay references academic sources to support its arguments and recommendations.

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

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Definition/scope of the essay..................................................................................................1
Extent of the problem.............................................................................................................1
Thesis statement.....................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Problem 1: Bad impact on performance.................................................................................2
Problem 2: Anxiety, depression and mental stress.................................................................2
Solution 1: Focusing on one thing at a time while scheduling the tasks................................3
Solution 2: Acknowledging hard work and taking a break from work..................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
Summary of problems and solutions......................................................................................4
Recommendation for best practice.........................................................................................4
Predictions for the future........................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Definition/scope of the essay
Staff within the organization is considered as the biggest asset of the company. This is
because their skills and experience helps in gaining productivity to the firm. Therefore, their
excessive workload must be reduced. The current essay is based on the healthcare sector in
which staff are facing the several problems regarding the excessive workload. It is important to
find out the solutions so that staff turnover can be reduced and maintain the long term
relationships with the employees working within organization. This supports in retaining the best
talent which ultimately improves the productivity of the firm (Spoorthy, Pratapa and Mahant,
2020).
Extent of the problem
Problems identified due to the excessive workload among healthcare staff are such that it
has caused the issue of poor performance in the hospital. Moreover, it has also led to the anxiety,
depression and mental stress among staff. These are the two problems which are identified
because they play a major role in the overall productivity of the firm and are highly essential to
investigate about them so that resolutions can be drawn out in an effective, efficient and potential
manner.
Thesis statement
The following discussion is based on the problems with excessive workload amongst
healthcare staff and suggestion on some potential solutions. Essay has identified two major
problems which has resulted the excessive workload amongst healthcare staff. Problem one is the
bad impact on performance and problem two is the anxiety, depression and mental stress.
Solutions drawn out are the focusing on one thing at a time while scheduling the tasks and
acknowledging hard work and taking a break from work for both the problems identified.
Moreover, summary of problems and solutions, recommendation for best practice and
predictions for the future are also covered in the current essay.
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MAIN BODY
Problem 1: Bad impact on performance
It is one of the problem which is caused by the excessive workload amongst healthcare
staff. If the staff is over loaded with more than one task, then they can easily loose efficiency and
effectiveness in their working. This results in the poor performance while handling the patients
and other tasks as well. There are several types of workloads such as the workloads which are
very large highly results in the declination of the performance and productivity. It basically
means that excessive workload has a direct impact on the staff performance. Its relationship
states that the higher the workload, more will be the difficulties for the staff to solve it which
hinders in rendering the best performance (Baker, Canvin and Berzins, 2019). This ultimately
results the declination of the performance. Bad performance due to excessive workload also
results in the conflict among team and leads to the difficulty in management among the groups.
Employers generally get frustrated if they don't find satisfying results with their employees
without giving the thought on the reduction of workload. Some of the staff don't raise their
voices due to the fear of being fired and this highly impacts the bad performance. Moreover, bad
performance also leads to the bad working environment in the firm with bad reputation in the
market place. This results in lowering of the goodwill and poor loyalty from the stakeholders of
the company (Korkmaz, Kazgan, Çekiç and Atmaca, 2020).
Problem 2: Anxiety, depression and mental stress
It is an another problem which is caused by the excessive workload amongst healthcare
staff. If the staff is over loaded with more than one task, then they can face the health issues and
headaches with low efficiency in working. This results in the anxiety, depression and mental
stress while handling the patients and other tasks as well. This is the problem which relates with
the first problem because the staff is suffering from problem then it will automatically generate
first problem. It means that anxiety, depression and mental stress among staff due to the
excessive workload leads in the poor performance in the organization (Pérez-Francisco, Duarte-
Clíments, del Rosario-Melián and Sánchez-Gómez, 2020). Multitasking in the firm confuses the
staff that which task is on the prior basis and which is not. This unsystematic way of working
creates mental stress among the staff which further leads to the anxiety and depression. It highly
causes the health issue to the staff which can result in the high staff turnover with low retention
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of the employees which means that if organization do not focus on such problems then they can
easily loose the staff who are skilled and knowledgeable along with the experienced ability. Such
issues turned out to be the major issues if not taken seriously on an initial basis because later on
it will only provide disadvantages to the firm. That is such issues are considered to be resolved
on a prior basis (Dillon, Tai-Seale, Meehan and Frosch, 2020).
Solution 1: Focusing on one thing at a time while scheduling the tasks
It is the solution for the first problem which is based on the bad impact on performance
due to the excessive workload among healthcare staff. It is important to convert bad performance
into best performance. This can be done by properly scheduling each and every activity which
are assigned to the staff in a sequential manner according to the priority. One of the most major
thing to consider is such that the staff must be trained they have to focus on one task at a time
rather than targeting all the tasks at the same time. This can support in improving the
performance of the staff and enhancing the productivity of the organization (Brown, Walters and
Jones, 2019). It helps in more clarity among the staff that how they can evaluate and execute the
task with an appropriate understanding of the activity they have to accomplish in an effective and
efficient manner. This is the solution which highly requires the proper planning and strategies to
implement so that performance can be improved potentially. This planning includes the
feasibility study to educate the employees regarding this and how they can recognise about what
to consider first. Strategies regarding that how the employees can bifurcate their tasks according
to the priority in order to maintain the quality in their performances. Moreover, employer must
focus on the proper communication flow with the staff so that the employees can easily
communicate their problems and resolutions can be drawn out (Cocchiara, Peruzzo, Mannocci
and La Torre, 2019).
Solution 2: Acknowledging hard work and taking a break from work
It is the solution for the second problem which is based on the anxiety, depression and
mental stress due to the excessive workload among healthcare staff. It is important to
acknowledge hard work and taking a break from work for the staff. This is done so that the
employees can can feel relaxed while working and avoid any health issues which can prove
dangerous to them. Providing recognition to the employees for their hard work is a motivational
strategy to the staff so that they can be feel comfortable and remove their anxiety, depression and
mental stress (Olson, Marchalik, Farley and Stewart, 2019). Taking a break is a flexibility which
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is highly important for the employees in order to perform mind free working within the firm.
This is because the stressed person cannot work until and unless its depression and anxiety is
resolved out. That is why taking the break from the work is highly essential in order to gain
better effectiveness in the company. Acknowledging hard work helps employees to get
encouraged to do smart work as well which removes the anxiety, depression and mental stress
also. Therefore, motivating employees either in the form of monetary or non monetary terms is
significant to work and tackle all the excessive workload which they are facing (Dall’Ora, Ball,
Reinius and Griffiths, 2020).
CONCLUSION
Summary of problems and solutions
The above essay has identified the two major problems in terms of the excessive
workload among the healthcare staff. Such as due to the excessive workload staff is giving the
bad performance in servicing the patients. Solution drawn out is that the staff must focus on one
thing at a time while scheduling the tasks according to the priorities. Another problem is the
anxiety, depression and mental stress due to the excessive workload. Solution to this is such that
the staff must be acknowledged regarding their hard work with a relaxing break.
Recommendation for best practice
It is recommended that the staff must split the tasks into subtasks and must limit the
multitasking activities as well. It is also suggested that the staff must consider the task
dependencies and must know the priorities of completing the tasks in a sequential manner one by
one (Sturm, Rieger, Martus and WorkSafeMed Consortium, 2019).
Predictions for the future
It can be predicted that after proper investigation on such relevant topic, organizations
must conclude such issues while applying the strategies recommended. This can result in the
easy working within organization with an appropriate functioning and productivity as well.
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References
Books and Journals
Baker, J.A., Canvin, K. and Berzins, K., 2019. The relationship between workforce
characteristics and perception of quality of care in mental health: A qualitative
study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 100, p.103412.
Brown, A.R., Walters, J.E. and Jones, A.E., 2019. Pathways to retention: Job satisfaction,
burnout, & organizational commitment among social workers. Journal of Evidence-Based
Social Work, 16(6), pp.577-594.
Cocchiara, R.A., Peruzzo, M., Mannocci, A. and La Torre, G., 2019. The use of yoga to manage
stress and burnout in healthcare workers: a systematic review. Journal of clinical
medicine, 8(3), p.284.
Dall’Ora, C., Ball, J., Reinius, M. and Griffiths, P., 2020. Burnout in nursing: a theoretical
review. Human resources for health, 18(1), pp.1-17.
Dillon, E.C., Tai-Seale, M., Meehan, A. and Frosch, D.L., 2020. Frontline perspectives on
physician burnout and strategies to improve well-being: interviews with physicians and
health system leaders. Journal of general internal medicine, 35(1), pp.261-267.
Korkmaz, S., Kazgan, A., Çekiç, S. and Atmaca, M., 2020. The anxiety levels, quality of sleep
and life and problem-solving skills in healthcare workers employed in COVID-19
services. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 80, pp.131-136.
Olson, K., Marchalik, D., Farley, H. and Stewart, M.T., 2019. Organizational strategies to reduce
physician burnout and improve professional fulfillment. Current problems in pediatric and
adolescent health care, 49(12), p.100664.
Pérez-Francisco, D.H., Duarte-Clíments, G., del Rosario-Melián, J.M. and Sánchez-Gómez,
M.B., 2020, March. Influence of workload on primary care nurses’ health and burnout,
patients’ safety, and quality of care: Integrative review. In Healthcare (Vol. 8, No. 1, p.
12). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.
Spoorthy, M.S., Pratapa, S.K. and Mahant, S., 2020. Mental health problems faced by healthcare
workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic–A review. Asian journal of psychiatry, 51,
p.102119.
Sturm, H., Rieger, M.A., Martus, P. and WorkSafeMed Consortium, 2019. Do perceived
working conditions and patient safety culture correlate with objective workload and patient
outcomes: A cross-sectional explorative study from a German university hospital. PLoS
One, 14(1), p.e0209487.
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