Analyzing the Impact: Excessive Workload on Healthcare Professionals

This essay explores the multifaceted impact of excessive workload on healthcare staff, highlighting issues such as burnout and lack of personal time, which subsequently affect their physical and mental well-being. The analysis delves into how these challenges can compromise the quality of patient care and the overall image of healthcare institutions. The essay further suggests potential solutions, emphasizing the importance of adequate rest, nutrition, stress management techniques, and the strategic implementation of additional staffing to alleviate the burden on existing healthcare workers. It advocates for policy changes that prioritize employee well-being, fostering a supportive environment where staff can effectively balance their professional responsibilities with their personal lives, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes and a positive organizational reputation. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a range of study tools and solved assignments for students.

Impact of Excessive workload on
Healthcare Staff

Impact of Excessive workload on Healthcare Staff
This essay states about the impact of excessive workload on the healthcare staff. Excessive
workload is connected to various problems which have both negative and positive impact on the
staff. This will discuss the problems faced by the healthcare staff which is related to excessive
workload. This workload will happen when there are so many patients are visiting the hospital or
centre. The extent of this problem is vast as it can affect the quality of work as well as the family
time an employee can give to their relatives. This will affect both physical and mental health of an
individual which will add various issues to their lifestyle. The excessive workload on a person
comes with attached issue which will not be appropriate for the health of an individual. This
problem will affect various people who are associated with the staff either they are relative or
patients. This can also impact the image of the hospital if the staff is not give proper quality of the
treatment to their patients. The impact on the image will not be good for the financial position of the
hospital. It is a very small problem in the starting but will lead to various connected problems which
will leave impact on various person. The theme of this essay is based on the problems which are
associated with excessive workload. This theme focus is on healthcare worker who face more issue
with excessive workload. It is because their leaves can be cancelled if there is some emergency in
the hospital. There holiday time is less compared to the other profession as they are supposed to be
working for the citizens welfare where they ignore their own health for their duties.
One of the problems faced by the healthcare staff in excessive workload is burnout. As
during the Covid their workload was increased which may affect their physical and mental health.
Burnout may lead to ineffectiveness in their work which will affect the quality of treatment
(Sultana, and et.al., 2020). The healthcare workers are known for helping the patients and this will
reduce the affect the health of a patient. This burnout among themselves may create various
problems such as low job satisfaction or not taking proper care of their health. Healthcare worker
take less break as it is their duty to be present in the hospital or any centre whenever there is an
emergency. This is not suitable for them if they already are facing problems related to their health,
such as any muscle pain or if there is an injury. The burnout situation have various other effects
such as on mental health. Healthcare workers face depression or migraine, etc. as they are
continuously working for the welfare of the society (Marvaldi, and et.al., 2021). This causes
deficiency in their quality of work as they are not able to concentrate properly on the patients. The
burnout has various phases which have different effect on a person such as chronic stress phase or
onset stress phase which is not beneficial for a persons' health. This will create various other related
problems such as it can risk the safety of a patient. The healthcare staff should be provided with a
solution which will reduce their problems and excessive work load (Johnson, and et.al., 2017).
Another problems faced by the healthcare staff in excessive workload is Lack in personal

time. The healthcare staff is working long hours which is impacting their personal lives as they are
mostly in the hospitals (Havaei, and MacPhee, 2020). They are not able to give time to their family
which is not good for them as well as their family. This may affect their sleep time which creates
various health problems and affect their quality of work. They may incur high blood pressure,
diabetes, problems related to heart, obesity and various others. These problems will affect them and
their work quality as they are getting any leisure time after they are done with their work. The long
working hours taking most of their time in a day which affects their personal lives as they are not
able to spend time with their family (Taylor, and et.al., 2020). Even if they take a day off they may
have to come to hospital if there is any emergency which is not good. This may create a negative
impact on the patients as they will not be able to take proper care of those patients which will affect
the time of the patient's recovery time. If a healthcare worker will not get some family time this will
increase the mental stress on themselves. It has various other effects on their body as they might
incorporate some serious disease if they are taking proper care of themselves. Health of healthcare
worker is very important as they have to take care of patients.
Solution for burnout can be that the healthcare worker should give importance to their sleep,
as proper sleep can cure various problems of a person as they can relax their body. This will help
them to keep their body relax which will help them to put focus on their work. The relaxed
healthcare worker will put more focus on the quality of work which will improve the health of
patients (Gray, and et.al., 2019). The healthcare workers can include nutritions in their diet which
will keep them healthy, which will help them to avoid any such situation which is not good for their
health. Hospitals can arrange a room in their premises where the workers can meditate or exercise
which will improve any of their problems related to muscle pain and other (Cocchiara, and et.al.,
2019). The meditation and exercise will reduce the mental stress or any problem related to mental
condition. Hospitals should employ new healthcare staff which will reduce the burden on the
existing workers by working in various shifts. Those new healthcare worker will help the existing
by switching the shifts whenever any person want to have a day off (Finco, and et.al., 2020). This
will help both the existing and new employees to have satisfaction with their working environment,
as they can have time for relaxing when they are in need. By employing new employees it will not
be necessary that in any emergency the absent healthcare worker will have to visit hospital. This
will improve the satisfaction of work among the employees as it will make them feel like they
belong in the organization.
The solution for lack in personal time can also be solved with the help of employing new
people. This will allow them to take holiday according to their suitability of arrangements. It can
also be solved by reducing the working hours as there should be proper schedule to be made which
allow them to do both work and have leisure time (Kua, and et.al., 2022). If the hospitals arrange

some facility where mothers can leave their children then it will give a sense of assurance to them
that they can work without any worry. This will improve their efficiency in the work, and they will
take proper care of the patients. Hospitals should make their management easy to reach so that they
can raise their issues related to work to their management. The hospitals can make some changes in
their policy regarding the leisure time an employee can take which will make sure that they are not
working in a stress full environment. This will ensure that the staff is not facing any issues related to
their health. The hospitals should also consider the problems of their employees if they want to
improve the work quality of the employees. If the employees are satisfied and healthy then they will
take proper care of their patients, which will improve the image of the hospitals in the mind of
customer. Management should organize activities or functions for their employees or staff where
they can relax and spend time with their family this will increase their efficiency (Fisher, and et.al.,
2020).
It can be concluded from this essay that a healthcare worker face various problems which
are either related to their either their personal life or burnout. Burnout has various symptoms which
are not beneficial for the health of an individual. This will overall affect the efficiency and
effectiveness of the employees work. There are various solutions which are provided to the
organization which will benefits the employees. The main solution among them is by employing
new workers which will solve both the problems of an individual if they can divide their work time.
This will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the employees. It is recommended to the
hospitals and centres that they should provide their employees proper break in their working
pattern. Another recommendation can be that they should improve their communication pattern with
the employees. This will help the employees to express their problems to the management. The
management of hospitals are also recommended that they should do proper distribution of the work
among the employees. By this they can coordinate with the other employees and will help to relax
when there is excessive workload. This will also help the employees to cooperate with each other to
solve problems.

References
Books and Journal
Cocchiara, R.A. and et.al., 2019. The use of yoga to manage stress and burnout in healthcare
workers: a systematic review. Journal of clinical medicine. 8(3). p.284.
Finco, S. and et.al., 2020. Workers’ rest allowance and smoothing of the workload in assembly
lines. International Journal of Production Research. 58(4). pp.1255-1270.
Fisher, J. and et.al., 2020. Community, work, and family in times of COVID-19. Community, Work
& Family. 23(3). pp.247-252.
Gray, P. and et.al., 2019. Workplace-based organizational interventions promoting mental health
and happiness among healthcare workers: A realist review. International journal of
environmental research and public health. 16(22). p.4396.
Havaei, F. and MacPhee, M., 2020. The impact of heavy nurse workload and patient/family
complaints on workplace violence: An application of human factors framework. Nursing
open. 7(3). pp.731-741.
Johnson, J. and et.al., 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.
Kua, Z. and et.al., 2022. Physical activity levels and mental health burden of healthcare workers
during COVID‐19 lockdown. Stress and Health. 38(1). pp.171-179.
Marvaldi, M. and et.al., 2021. Anxiety, depression, trauma-related, and sleep disorders among
healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-
analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 126. pp.252-264.
Sultana, A. and et.al., 2020. Burnout among healthcare providers during COVID-19: Challenges
and evidence-based interventions. Indian J Med Ethics. 5(4). pp.308-11.
Taylor, S. and et.al., 2020. Fear and avoidance of healthcare workers: An important, under-
recognized form of stigmatization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of anxiety
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