It could relate to a nurses happiness or contentment with their work environment, or the conditions of their employment, such as their pay. It could also relate to how the nurses react emotionally to their work and the empathy they may feel for their patients who are suffering from illness or who may die.
Nurses can get easily depressed and overworked. It is important to have incentives to increase job satisfaction and overall morale. Low morale affects patient outcomes.
There’s no better way to figure out what will help people the most than to just straight up ask them. Surveys, interviews, emails, whatever tool works best – as long as people are getting helped! I asked a few of my visitors, test takers, and researchers to share their thoughts to help me better understand how people work. I’m sharing it with you in hopes you’d get something out of it, too. I’m also trying to bring their words to you with as little filtering as possible, so please bear with the awesome level of personal-tough this article has.
Now’s the time to focus on your professional development, your career growth, and the overall future of all things job related.
Today’s Focus: Increasing Morale In Nurses
‘R’ = Richard N. Stephenson (me!)
‘I’ = Interviewee (anonymous by request unless otherwise noted)
R: What’s so special about this topic anyway?
I: A few benefits would come from increasing nurses morale. A example of increasing morale of nurses include not talking back to the sick people. A lot of American nurses could use an increase in morale.
R: This is very interesting stuff here and I think it could help people. What do you feel is the most life-altering thing about the topic?
I: Nurse morale is crucial in maintaining or improving the perception of doctor/patient care. The medical industry has a long history of illicit behavior for experimentation of profit; putting a stringent value system in place for nurses will help a patient feel at ease. If a patient is at ease, then there is a greater chance of recovery not having to deal with external stresses.
R: Explain what about this subject could help people be just all around better.
I: Increasing morale is something that anyone should strive for in a professional workplace. In regards to nurses, since they hold confidential information regarding the patients that they see each day, increasing their morality not to misuse such information would be beneficial to this group of persons. Similarly it would make their workplace more valuable and professional; the patients would be glad to know that they are treated with care; based on a set of established morals that are somewhat implied as common sense.
R: If you had to pick the “World’s Best” for this topic, who would it be?
I: [R: I miscommunicated ‘moral’ instead of ‘morale’ but the answer was so good I had to keep it!] Well you’re in luck, I just happen to be a licensed practical nurse so I have lots of personal experience with this. No nurse wants to act immorally with the care of his/her patients. I believe immoral things occur because a lot of the time nurses are given a work load that is too large for the allotted time and corners have to be cut causing immoral actions occur. Not because the nurse doesn’t care, but because there is a certain time frame that all the medication needs to be passed, orders need to be processed, assessments and charting needs to be completed, and squeeze in there the unplanned code blue, admission, death, that needs to be tended to. I believe the solution is spend the extra money, get some extra nurses on the shift and decrease the work load… even on night shift. Just because doctors aren’t making rounds and there are less meds to be passed doesn’t mean there is less work. Sometimes it can be slow, but that is a rarity. In short, nurses are the type of people that would most understand this topic.
R: Who’s the flat-out worst at this subject?
I: Someone who has no interest in nursing. If they do not want to be in the nursing field, then they do not necessarily need to know the morale of nurses. Also anyone who does not like to seek medical attention would not benefit from this.
R: Describe the “perfect day” as far as making this subject a part of your life.
I: They would need to know what is expected of a nurse to know what morale they should follow. They need to know what is wrong, and what is prohibited. Once they have set expectations, they can look into each expectation further to ensure that everything is properly executed when keeping the morale.
R: When do you think new folks should get into this topic?
I: I think the topic of morale would be highly dependent on present circumstances, the medical field can be stressful, especially on nurses. I would try to find a time that was neither too emotionally high or low, but rather to find a nice medium in which all circumstances may be considered. I think to find the best time it should be estimated between the shifts and individual circumstances.
R: Seems like there are good times and bad times to bring this one up. When’s a really BAD time, do you think?
I: The frustrations that many nurses feel these days certainly affects their morale and, unfortunately, it may only worsen as new medical plans take effect. Long hours, stagnant pay, authoritative physicians, lack of respect, and association with bedpans and bedsores are just a new of the things affecting the morale of nurses.
R: Where in people’s daily lives do you think this topic would fit in nicely?
I: The best way to increase morale among nurses is to educate nurses and supervisors about treatment fatigue. Nurses should have paid time off to rest from helping others, and also should receive education on the issue of treatment fatigue. Nurses should feel comfortable reporting problems or errors without fear of retaliation. Finally, nurses should be commended when they perform well or accomplish an extraordinary outcome.
R: Tell us about the worst place to make this subject part of our lives.
I: Ehen I took my son to the hospitals the nurses were very rude to me. The nurses do a lot of work and need to be nice to the patients. They need to be paid more.
R: Who do you think could use some help with this subject?
I: Hospitals, doctors office or outpatient centers could benefit from increasing the morale in nurses. I work in the healthcare industry and I think people don’t realize how much nurses do in their daily life and how they impact people’s lives. They work extremely hard and do things that most people won’t. Also, I think patients would benefit from this also because they are the ones who directly benefit from what nurses do.
R: Got any pressing advice for us on this topic? The readers are hungry!
I: Understand that the vast majority of people in the field of medicine, have a high degree of interest in the well-being of others. Since it is possible to be dealing with live or death matters regularly as a nurse, it is important to know that nurses could easily become depressed to see patients in pain. The higher the morale level, the more attentive the nurse is likely to be toward getting all of the details of patient care “right.”
R: What’s something people should avoid if they’re looking into this subject?
I: In order to learn more about this topic people need to avoid blindly accepting what could easily be common misconceptions. It is important in order to truly understand the topic that you obtain firsthand information from nurses who are currently or recently working in the industry. They are best positioned to give real insight into what areas need to be addressed in terms of increasing morale.
R: What’s the very next step someone should take to learn more about this topic?
I: It is important that health care professionals like nurses are in an environment that is safe and comfortable. Accurate and efficient scheduling of patients is needed to prevent fatigue and over-work of nurses. Showing appreciation for nurses in addition to doctors is a good way to boost morale.
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Did you find at least one or two golden nuggets of useful information in there? I hope so – I know I love reading these and seeing how I can apply this wisdom to my life. Make it your goal today to take at least 1 thing away from this post and try to live your life more focused from now on.
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