Why are so many medical assistants and nurses facing burnout?
Introduction
What is burnout you might ask? Burnout is characterized by at least one of the following features: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced satisfaction in work (Adnan Agha). In a time where medical assistants and nurses are needed at a greater rate than ever before, we are facing burnout at a rate of 56% (American Nurses foundation 2023). How is this happening? Easy, medical assistants and nurses are working short staffed and long hours to meet the daily tasks that are given to them, often without breaks. However, that is only two of the reasons that burnout has become so prevalent these days. However, lack of resources, sleep deprivation and high stress environments are among the leading causes of burnout. This essay will delve into why there is such a high degree of burnout in clinics and how we can possibly change this moving forward. Burnout is detrimental to the nursing field. More and more medical assistants, nurses and even providers are leaving the field due to burnout.
History of the problem
Burnout is not new to medical assistants and nursing staff, in fact burnout was first used in "1974 by Herbert Freudenberger when discussing the emotional and physical stress experienced by helping professions, such as nursing" Lauren Katulka. Since 1974 the definition of burnout has grown to include emotional, mental and physical exhaustion. Burnout continues today and we saw a significant increase in the amount of burnout during the pandemic. During the Covid 19 pandemic we saw burnout reach an all-time high as clinical staff and hospital staff were forced to work at a much higher frequency than we had before. This was because during this time medical assistants and nursing staff left the field due to not wanting to get the Covid 19 vaccination, death and burnout. So, with fewer staff and an increase in patient load we were forced to work longer harder hours.
Extent of the problem
The term burnout was first discussed in 1974. It has become more widely used after the covid 19 pandemic when medical professionals began leaving the field at an alarming rate. For many burnout left them feeling tired, stressed and overall overwhelmed with their lives. Currently retention of nursing staff is a huge issue (Jennifer Mensik Kennedy). In the first 2 years of working as nursing staff 33% will quit due to the high demand of their job (Kennedy). The Covid pandemic shed light on burnout, but this was certainly not a new concept, in fact this just showed us how the nursing staff is being failed by management.
89% of nursing staff have stated that they are facing working short staffed. Meaning they are unable to give their best to their patients and patient care is lacking in certain areas. Jodi Helmer notes that ERs and ICUs have a 4:1 patient ration. This is double what is recommended. This ratio just goes back to why burnout is so prevalent. Patient care will continue to decrease and negative patient outcomes will continue if we do not find a solution to this healthcare crisis. Sadly, hospitals and clinics are wanting plug-and-play nursing staff (Kennedy), meaning that they want someone who is ready to hit the floor running and not need a mentorship programs. However, without mentorship and a positive atmosphere for the working environment burnout will continue to rise within the nursing staff.
Not only is retention and issue but so is nursing student retention. Nursing students drop out at a rate of 20% or 1 in 5 students according to the CORE higher ed team. The CORE teams note this is partly due to unsustainable student debt and high academic demands. Nursing student retention is important as the baby boomers are aging out and are retiring from the field. The approach that is needed when looking at the retention of students is looking at what may drive them to succeed or fail. When we look at the failure rate, we are looking at financial hardship and academic stress. However, on the flip side of that coin we have success of student membership and peer support.
Repercussions of the problem
Burnout is a significant issue within the medical community today. Due to nursing staff burnout, patient care is decreasing, and unfortunately more medical errors are taking place. Burnout is leading to impaired cognitive function, increased patient safety, physical and emotional exhaustion, mental health disorders, depersonalization, physical illness feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of control (PMC PubMed Central). As burnout continues, more medical mistakes will be made which could result in harm to the patient. As burnout grows nursing staff face medical errors. These medical errors can be medication errors and up including death of patient.
Nursing staff dedicate their lives to caring for others in their professional capacity. The dedication to their field can at times bleed over into their personal lives and that is when burnout happens. It is with this dedication to their passion that leads to such a high level of burnout.
Long term solutions to burnout in nursing staff
To decrease burnout in nursing staff we need to start by making more programs to streamline the process of becoming a medical assistant or nurse. By streamlining or opening up more cohorts we would increase the number of medical assistants and nurses coming into the nursing field. As more nursing staff come into the field clinics will stop working so short staffed and that will help alleviate some of the burnout.
We also need to give new medical assistants and nurses adequate training time before we let them proceed with patient care on their own. When we give them proper training, we give them the experience that they need to feel confident and reassured that they are able to meet the daily tasks ahead of them. Proper training also helps diminish medical errors. With proper training nursing staff prepare to take on new tasks.
Mentorship is one of the most important solutions to help with burnout. When having a true mentor, you have a safe place to go to talk about the difficult parts of the day. You can run by someone to say what should happen and how it should happen often times before you make the mistake. With mentorship you have someone to rely on to guide you through the learning process. When having a mentor, they should help you learn your scope of practice and make sure you know where that scope ends.
Scope of practice
Knowing your scope of practice is a vital part of handling burnout. A medical assistances scope is different from that of a LPN and a RN. Each degree comes with a different scope of practice and each person needs to know what the top of their scope is. It is important to know when to say no to management or your team members when they ask you to go above your scope. It is important that you never go above your scope as this can result in disciplinary action, a fine and possible jail time. Having a mentor who has been in the medical field for a while is a great resource to hone your knowledge of your personal scope of practice. They are also able to guide you where you need to look if you have questions about if something is within your scope of practice.
Conclusion
Nursing staff burnout has been on the rise since the pandemic. Although burnout is not new in the medical field, we are seeing an increase in cases with nursing staff leaving the field because they can no longer work at the frequency that is now required by management. Management is also not listening to the concerns of the nursing staff and their requests for additional staff to help with burnout.
Unfortunately, there are no short-term solutions to burnout. We need management to understand that the level of work they are requiring from us daily is at times overwhelming and daunting. We need management to really look at us as individuals and not just a number. They need to follow us for a day and see the tasks we are required to do now so that they can see that we are still working under high demand.
Overall working in the medical field we need to be aware of what burnout looks like and what our signs of burnout are. By doing some self-reflection we can come to a better understanding of what we need to keep burnout at bay (Reith, T). Also making sure that we are getting our basic self-care will help us withstand burnout (Reith, T). Learning to cope with the symptoms of burnout should help us in the long run. Finding ways to lesson your emotional, physical and mental exhaustion and recharge your soul will help keep you in a more positive mindset.
For me as a medical assistant in a busy urology practice I have been facing burnout for some time. Working continuously short-staffed and long hours it has been hard to not face moments of burnout. I am also now going back to school to obtain my RN and am concerned at the amount of burnout I may face as I transition from being a medical assistant and college student to that of the RN.
Burnout is no joke. The toll it takes can be devastating to those who experience it. The mental health aspect alone can be daunting. Add in the very physical exhaustion one may feel and the symptoms that can come along with it. What some people don't understand is that real physical, mental and emotional symptoms come into play with burnout. Where you once had no mental health disorders now you are facing depression and anxiety diagnosis. Where you once were physically healthy you now maybe experiencing malaise and myalgia. Where you once have had emotional wellbeing, you now cry or are more often frustrated. Burnout takes a toll on you emotionally, mentally and physically.
Introduction
What is burnout you might ask? Burnout is characterized by at least one of the following features: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced satisfaction in work (Adnan Agha). In a time where medical assistants and nurses are needed at a greater rate than ever before, we are facing burnout at a rate of 56% (American Nurses foundation 2023). How is this happening? Easy, medical assistants and nurses are working short staffed and long hours to meet the daily tasks that are given to them, often without breaks. However, that is only two of the reasons that burnout has become so prevalent these days. However, lack of resources, sleep deprivation and high stress environments are among the leading causes of burnout. This essay will delve into why there is such a high degree of burnout in clinics and how we can possibly change this moving forward. Burnout is detrimental to the nursing field. More and more medical assistants, nurses and even providers are leaving the field due to burnout.
History of the problem
Burnout is not new to medical assistants and nursing staff, in fact burnout was first used in "1974 by Herbert Freudenberger when discussing the emotional and physical stress experienced by helping professions, such as nursing" Lauren Katulka. Since 1974 the definition of burnout has grown to include emotional, mental and physical exhaustion. Burnout continues today and we saw a significant increase in the amount of burnout during the pandemic. During the Covid 19 pandemic we saw burnout reach an all-time high as clinical staff and hospital staff were forced to work at a much higher frequency than we had before. This was because during this time medical assistants and nursing staff left the field due to not wanting to get the Covid 19 vaccination, death and burnout. So, with fewer staff and an increase in patient load we were forced to work longer harder hours.
Extent of the problem
The term burnout was first discussed in 1974. It has become more widely used after the covid 19 pandemic when medical professionals began leaving the field at an alarming rate. For many burnout left them feeling tired, stressed and overall overwhelmed with their lives. Currently retention of nursing staff is a huge issue (Jennifer Mensik Kennedy). In the first 2 years of working as nursing staff 33% will quit due to the high demand of their job (Kennedy). The Covid pandemic shed light on burnout, but this was certainly not a new concept, in fact this just showed us how the nursing staff is being failed by management.
89% of nursing staff have stated that they are facing working short staffed. Meaning they are unable to give their best to their patients and patient care is lacking in certain areas. Jodi Helmer notes that ERs and ICUs have a 4:1 patient ration. This is double what is recommended. This ratio just goes back to why burnout is so prevalent. Patient care will continue to decrease and negative patient outcomes will continue if we do not find a solution to this healthcare crisis. Sadly, hospitals and clinics are wanting plug-and-play nursing staff (Kennedy), meaning that they want someone who is ready to hit the floor running and not need a mentorship programs. However, without mentorship and a positive atmosphere for the working environment burnout will continue to rise within the nursing staff.
Not only is retention and issue but so is nursing student retention. Nursing students drop out at a rate of 20% or 1 in 5 students according to the CORE higher ed team. The CORE teams note this is partly due to unsustainable student debt and high academic demands. Nursing student retention is important as the baby boomers are aging out and are retiring from the field. The approach that is needed when looking at the retention of students is looking at what may drive them to succeed or fail. When we look at the failure rate, we are looking at financial hardship and academic stress. However, on the flip side of that coin we have success of student membership and peer support.
Repercussions of the problem
Burnout is a significant issue within the medical community today. Due to nursing staff burnout, patient care is decreasing, and unfortunately more medical errors are taking place. Burnout is leading to impaired cognitive function, increased patient safety, physical and emotional exhaustion, mental health disorders, depersonalization, physical illness feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of control (PMC PubMed Central). As burnout continues, more medical mistakes will be made which could result in harm to the patient. As burnout grows nursing staff face medical errors. These medical errors can be medication errors and up including death of patient.
Nursing staff dedicate their lives to caring for others in their professional capacity. The dedication to their field can at times bleed over into their personal lives and that is when burnout happens. It is with this dedication to their passion that leads to such a high level of burnout.
Long term solutions to burnout in nursing staff
To decrease burnout in nursing staff we need to start by making more programs to streamline the process of becoming a medical assistant or nurse. By streamlining or opening up more cohorts we would increase the number of medical assistants and nurses coming into the nursing field. As more nursing staff come into the field clinics will stop working so short staffed and that will help alleviate some of the burnout.
We also need to give new medical assistants and nurses adequate training time before we let them proceed with patient care on their own. When we give them proper training, we give them the experience that they need to feel confident and reassured that they are able to meet the daily tasks ahead of them. Proper training also helps diminish medical errors. With proper training nursing staff prepare to take on new tasks.
Mentorship is one of the most important solutions to help with burnout. When having a true mentor, you have a safe place to go to talk about the difficult parts of the day. You can run by someone to say what should happen and how it should happen often times before you make the mistake. With mentorship you have someone to rely on to guide you through the learning process. When having a mentor, they should help you learn your scope of practice and make sure you know where that scope ends.
Scope of practice
Knowing your scope of practice is a vital part of handling burnout. A medical assistances scope is different from that of a LPN and a RN. Each degree comes with a different scope of practice and each person needs to know what the top of their scope is. It is important to know when to say no to management or your team members when they ask you to go above your scope. It is important that you never go above your scope as this can result in disciplinary action, a fine and possible jail time. Having a mentor who has been in the medical field for a while is a great resource to hone your knowledge of your personal scope of practice. They are also able to guide you where you need to look if you have questions about if something is within your scope of practice.
Conclusion
Nursing staff burnout has been on the rise since the pandemic. Although burnout is not new in the medical field, we are seeing an increase in cases with nursing staff leaving the field because they can no longer work at the frequency that is now required by management. Management is also not listening to the concerns of the nursing staff and their requests for additional staff to help with burnout.
Unfortunately, there are no short-term solutions to burnout. We need management to understand that the level of work they are requiring from us daily is at times overwhelming and daunting. We need management to really look at us as individuals and not just a number. They need to follow us for a day and see the tasks we are required to do now so that they can see that we are still working under high demand.
Overall working in the medical field we need to be aware of what burnout looks like and what our signs of burnout are. By doing some self-reflection we can come to a better understanding of what we need to keep burnout at bay (Reith, T). Also making sure that we are getting our basic self-care will help us withstand burnout (Reith, T). Learning to cope with the symptoms of burnout should help us in the long run. Finding ways to lesson your emotional, physical and mental exhaustion and recharge your soul will help keep you in a more positive mindset.
For me as a medical assistant in a busy urology practice I have been facing burnout for some time. Working continuously short-staffed and long hours it has been hard to not face moments of burnout. I am also now going back to school to obtain my RN and am concerned at the amount of burnout I may face as I transition from being a medical assistant and college student to that of the RN.
Burnout is no joke. The toll it takes can be devastating to those who experience it. The mental health aspect alone can be daunting. Add in the very physical exhaustion one may feel and the symptoms that can come along with it. What some people don't understand is that real physical, mental and emotional symptoms come into play with burnout. Where you once had no mental health disorders now you are facing depression and anxiety diagnosis. Where you once were physically healthy you now maybe experiencing malaise and myalgia. Where you once have had emotional wellbeing, you now cry or are more often frustrated. Burnout takes a toll on you emotionally, mentally and physically.
