Stress can be defined as a sta…

Stress can be defined as a state of mental and emotional strain because of challenging situations. Stress has been one of the major challenges faced by nurses today. Kihye et al. points out that “Nurse Fatigue has been discovered nationwide as a danger to both nurses and patients safety.” According to Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing, “Nursing is a discipline, calling, and area of training. As a profession, nursing is focused on learning advancement.

Emphasis set on finding, portraying, expanding, and changing learning for proficient nursing practice. As a calling, nursing has a social order to be mindful and responsible to the public it serves. Nursing is a vital piece of the therapeutic services framework, and it incorporates the advancement of well-being, counteractive action of sickness, and care of physically, mentally sick, and debilitated individuals of any age, in all human services settings and other group settings.” The issue of working long hours has become a tradition in the nursing job.

However, working long hours has many negative impacts on both nurses and patients safety. Nauret, Rick. Ph.

D. states, “That working long hours result in burnout, job dissatisfaction and putting patients’ safety at risk.” Nauret goes on to explain, that a study shows that sixty-five percent of nurses who works long hours and also the number of nurses reporting burnout and having thoughts to quit their jobs increased greatly as working hours increased. The article, “The 12-Hour Shift: Friend or Foe?” states that nurses who work long hours tend to experience fatigue, likely to report poor quality and patient safety than nurses who work few hours. The problem of stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction for both nurses and patients, and fatigue as a result of working long hours can be solved by reducing long hours and making right schedules for nurses. According to Ball J et al, “Trinkoff et al. explains that working long hours can have negative results for nurses and patients.

Most of these issues are fatigue related. For instance, nurses who work long hours are observed to be at high danger of work problems. Such as needle stick injuries and musculoskeletal issue.” A report from PPSA, which talks about the dangers of healthcare fatigue by showing that 1,600 incident or near misses that did not end in harm to the patient were accounted for between June 2004 and August 2013. In general, 88.5% of the occurrences were accounted for as resulting in healthcare worker fatigue. Thirty-seven of the incidents detailed brought about great harm, including four nurses that caused the death of a patient.

The main five areas where such adverse events were accounted for were the medical-surgical unit, emergency department, drug store, general medical ward, and laboratory. (Zimlich, 2014). Study shows that they are other factors that are fatigue related. Such as sleep deprivation.Kihye et al states that, “Geiger et al explains that nurses operating the 12-hour shifts sleep on average solely five hours between shifts shorter than the seven to eight hours per day recommended by the national heart, lung, and blood institute.”