Substance Abuse Among Nurses Under Stress
What is nursing? Nursing is a profession and both a rewarding and a well-rewarded career. Nursing professions provide the health care to patients. While care need is increasing, there is also worldwide shortage of nurses; Owing to nurse shortages both in UK and globally (Janet Scammel, 2016). Consequences, nurses are always in high demand. Nurses have been trained to be the first to treat and the last to provide comfort and safe, high-quality care for patients. Moreover, the job of nursing requires significant physical as well as mental work, so it is very stressful. Nurses who experience stress may develop chemical dependency and substance abuse. Nurses also may have substance disorders because …show more content…
According to Waddillgoad (2017), there are numerous occupational factors that adversely affect nurses, including workload, overtime, rotation shifts, 12-hour shifts, bullying by nurses’ colleagues, patient morbidity and mortality, changing from one unit to another, and lack of staff support. Long shifts, time pressure, and deficient levels of staffing will cause burnout among nurses. Vacation scheduling may mean that there is a shortage of available nurses. Nurses lack control in the working environment due to mandates by the hospital organization. Nurses work in hospitals that are open 24 hours, 7 days per week. They work under rules that are made by hospital organizations, so they must adapt to an environment they have not helped to design. There may be too little or no orientation to new working areas, so nurses who are new to these areas have to be highly motivated. Nurses also may have to face violence from patients. Although nurses and physicians may face similar stress, nurses have the additional burden of facing overtime and night shifts as well as some physicians that bring about physical exhaustion and ill effects. When nurses experience their jobs as too stressful, they may feel out of …show more content…
Therefore, nurses in NICUs experience more stress in having to comfort the babies and their parents. It is a stressful situation to transport an ailing newborn baby from the labor room to the NICU. This transfer process may occur multiple times during a work shift, but nurses who have emotional responses to these transfers must continue to maintain their professionalism. Parents of sick babies are highly demanding, so nurses must learn how to interact with them. In addition to their experience of emotional responses and physical labor, NICU nurses are on their feet at all times. They work 12-hour shifts and rotate throughout the day and night, sometimes working overnight shifts. They may have to move machines or equipment within the neonatal units. In addition, some nurses take classes that make them more busy and tired while they are at work. Nurses who work night shifts will experience more stress and burnout. NICU nurses must meet the expectations of society’s needs and parents’ needs. The consequences of unrelieved emotional labor, which include impairment of psychological health, development of mood disorders such as depression, absenteeism from work, and burnout, might include suicidal intention or ideation (Das & Sankar,
What is nursing? Nursing is a profession and both a rewarding and a well-rewarded career. Nursing professions provide the health care to patients. While care need is increasing, there is also worldwide shortage of nurses; Owing to nurse shortages both in UK and globally (Janet Scammel, 2016). Consequences, nurses are always in high demand. Nurses have been trained to be the first to treat and the last to provide comfort and safe, high-quality care for patients. Moreover, the job of nursing requires significant physical as well as mental work, so it is very stressful. Nurses who experience stress may develop chemical dependency and substance abuse. Nurses also may have substance disorders because …show more content…
According to Waddillgoad (2017), there are numerous occupational factors that adversely affect nurses, including workload, overtime, rotation shifts, 12-hour shifts, bullying by nurses’ colleagues, patient morbidity and mortality, changing from one unit to another, and lack of staff support. Long shifts, time pressure, and deficient levels of staffing will cause burnout among nurses. Vacation scheduling may mean that there is a shortage of available nurses. Nurses lack control in the working environment due to mandates by the hospital organization. Nurses work in hospitals that are open 24 hours, 7 days per week. They work under rules that are made by hospital organizations, so they must adapt to an environment they have not helped to design. There may be too little or no orientation to new working areas, so nurses who are new to these areas have to be highly motivated. Nurses also may have to face violence from patients. Although nurses and physicians may face similar stress, nurses have the additional burden of facing overtime and night shifts as well as some physicians that bring about physical exhaustion and ill effects. When nurses experience their jobs as too stressful, they may feel out of …show more content…
Therefore, nurses in NICUs experience more stress in having to comfort the babies and their parents. It is a stressful situation to transport an ailing newborn baby from the labor room to the NICU. This transfer process may occur multiple times during a work shift, but nurses who have emotional responses to these transfers must continue to maintain their professionalism. Parents of sick babies are highly demanding, so nurses must learn how to interact with them. In addition to their experience of emotional responses and physical labor, NICU nurses are on their feet at all times. They work 12-hour shifts and rotate throughout the day and night, sometimes working overnight shifts. They may have to move machines or equipment within the neonatal units. In addition, some nurses take classes that make them more busy and tired while they are at work. Nurses who work night shifts will experience more stress and burnout. NICU nurses must meet the expectations of society’s needs and parents’ needs. The consequences of unrelieved emotional labor, which include impairment of psychological health, development of mood disorders such as depression, absenteeism from work, and burnout, might include suicidal intention or ideation (Das & Sankar,