Graduation Year
2022
Document Type
Senior Thesis
Degree
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Primary Major
Nursing
Primary Minor
Global Public Health
Second Minor
Leadership Studies
Thesis Advisor
Patricia Harris, PhD, RN, CNS
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people, both emotionally and physically. Nurses are among the people who are most affected. The nurses' quality of life and the way they provide care has been changed by the pandemic. Nurses are so focused on providing the best possible care for their patients that they neglect to look after themselves.
Objective: The purpose of this literature review is to identify and evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nurses and their well-being. The significance of this research was to establish how the ongoing pandemic has impacted nurses’ performance and emotional well-being due to burnout.
Methods: An online search was undertaken as part of a content analysis to see if there were any correlations between nurse burnout, professional work performance, and personal well-being. Keywords used in this search included: Nurse Burnout, COVID-19, Weariness, and Stress were used to find the majority of the study articles.
Findings: A total of six articles were used; this included cross sectional studies, observational studies, meta-analytic studies, and quantitative studies. Within these studies, it was found that most of the burnout was caused due to an increase in work hours, stress, fatigue, traumatic stress, inadequate administrative time, inability to separate work from personal time, and inadequate support from nursing staff (Richards, A. E., et al. 2021).
Conclusion: This comprehensive evaluation of the literature revealed that nurse burnout is on the rise around the world, resulting in a significant increase in stress and exhaustion. A better work atmosphere, taking more breaks, talking to a professional (therapist), learning to manage stress, being able to separate work and home life, and avoiding superfluous work are all depicted as techniques to decrease burnout among nurses. As a profession that is known to help and advocate for patients, it is critical and necessary to create solutions that will help everyone in this field, especially our nurses.
Proposal: I propose to have a mixed quantitative and qualitative survey to collect new data from how the nurses in the previous studies have felt, after the study was first conducted, and to see if they would like to follow-up with an interview to be able to express their concerns.