Nursing profession and its challenges
Nursing profession necessitates dedication and focus in order to achieve quality and efficiency. Nurses are expected to maintain politeness at work and to attend to patients with attention and professionalism. Today's difficulties in the healthcare sector are primarily the result of internal errors (Newman, Maylor & Chansarkar, 2002). The government and other stakeholders have done enough to raise the standards of the industry, which is critical to the realization of a healthy society, but health practitioners have failed to rise to the occasion as expected. Nurses have yet to demonstrate the commitment required to obtain quality results. The reason why the healthcare system lacks quality outcomes is because physicians and nurses are not satisfied with their job (Newman, Maylor & Chansarkar, 2002).
Impact of job dissatisfaction on patient safety
Organizational culture is either defective or incapable of providing job security leading to silent resistance by employees. To show their dissatisfaction, nurses might resort to offer reduced quality services which then compromises the outcome and safety of the patients. Noncompliance with the organization's culture causes job dissatisfaction and will also encourage incivility which is detrimental to patients' safety. Therefore, there is need to Improve nurse retention, job satisfaction, patient safety, and practice outcomes.
The correlation between nurse burnout and patient satisfaction
Problem explained
Healthcare working environment is guided by the organization's culture in association with stipulated government policies. In most cases, nurses and other healthcare practitioners evaluate the suitability of a job using the prevailing workplace culture and ethics. The contemporary workplace ethics are evidently elusive and cannot be entirely relied upon to assure job safety. Recently, there has been a significant uproar from nurses who cite lack of personal health and safety. They feel that their health benefits are not well articulated. Their lack of satisfaction has since lowered the ability to implement practice-based interventions which have decreased the quality of healthcare services. Due to lack of job satisfaction, nurses experience burnout which thwart their efforts of providing quality services (Adwan, 2014). This problem can be observed on the tremendous lack of service satisfaction from patients. Presence of incivility among nurses and ultimately, reduced practice outcomes.
The need for enhancing organizational culture
Impact of the problem
The correlation between nurse burnout, nurse satisfaction, and patient satisfaction and safety is vivid. According to (Lobo, Ploeg, Fisher, Peachey & Akhtar-Danesh, 2017), a majority of nurses working overtime have reported the highest number of job dissatisfaction. Subsequently, customer dissatisfaction is high in settings where job satisfaction among nurses is lower indicating a possible relationship. Evidently, this shows that these issues are intertwined together. The nurse is the backbone of service provision in a hospital and if they are overworked, they get exhausted making them erroneous and unlikely to offer low-quality services (Lobo, Ploeg, Fisher, Peachey & Akhtar-Danesh, 2017). The extra working hours will make the nurse develop a negative attitude making them unsatisfied with their work. Being the closest person to the patient in a hospital, a nurse satisfaction is directly corresponding to the patient experience and the overall service quality. This implies that a nurse job dissatisfaction will lead to inadequate service provision.
The impact of job security on patient safety
Additionally, if a nurse lacks job security and that the certainty of their job is unclear, there is a likelihood that they will not enhance the organizational culture which aids in ensuring patient's safety. An ideal corporate culture is a tool that organizations can utilize to secure patients and any other person around the institution. Being uncertain of their stay in the team makes them frustrated and less observant in the activities (Nelson & Venhaus, 2015). In case there is such reluctance in working, the organization will undoubtedly suffer the cost. Patients will abandon the institution and will ruin its reputation.
Possible solutions to improve job satisfaction and patient safety
Proposed solution
Enhancing organizational culture
The above discussion points out that lack of job satisfaction is among the leading causes of challenges in healthcare provision. Coupled with some factors like an unethical workplace, an organizational culture determines the level a nurse feels satisfied with his/her job. First, a corporate culture must promote civility as its prioritized objective (Wallis, 2013). Through civility, many challenges facing healthcare practice like patient dissatisfaction and insecurity will be addressed. An advanced work setting accommodates the diversity aspect of every individual including giving the nurses a defined channel to air their grievances and be heard (Stock & McFadden, 2017). Instead of going low with their insurgency, nurses can use proper channels in place to share their concerns. Therefore, healthcare institutions must ensure an excellent organizational culture as the initial step towards the provision of quality services.
Minimizing overtime working hours
(Sharp & Clancy, 2008) realized that nurses' burnout does not only lead to poor services and job dissatisfaction, but it also causes adoption of uncivilized behaviors. High levels of arrogance as a result of exhaustion are exhibited by nurses working extra hours as compared to those working normal hours (Sharp & Clancy, 2008). If incivility finds its way into nursing, patient's security is automatically compromised. The need for revising the working hours for nurses is, therefore, inevitable. Nurse have to work based on their ability and not based on the organization's desires.
Increasing nurses' benefits
For an employer to retain an employee and ensure that they are satisfied with their contemporary positions, the employer must be willing to increase the benefits of the latter. Raising their remunerations is the only sure way to ensure that they remain dedicated to their job ("Factors Related to Job Satisfaction among Nurses," 2016). Hence, periodical review of the employee's salaries is vital so that they correspond to current ranges in the market.
References
Adwan, J. (2014). Pediatric Nurses' Grief Experience, Burnout and Job Satisfaction. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 29(4), 29-336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2014.01.011
Factors Related To Job Satisfaction Among Nurses. (2016). European Scientific Journal, 12(5). http://dx.doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n5p100
Lobo, V., Ploeg, J., Fisher, A., Peachey, G., & Akhtar-Danesh, N. (2017). Critical care nurses' perceptions of the outcomes of working overtime in Canada. Nursing Outlook, 65(4), 400-410. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2016.12.009
Nelson, J., & Venhaus, R. (2015). Improving retention through nurse/physician communication. Nurse Leader, 3(1), 54-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2004.11.003
Newman, K., Maylor, U., & Chansarkar, B. (2002). “The nurse satisfaction, service quality and nurse retention chain”. Journal Of Management In Medicine, 16(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02689230210445095
Sharp, B., & Clancy, C. (2008). Limiting Nurse Overtime, and Promoting Other Good Working Conditions, Influences Patient Safety. Journal Of Nursing Care Quality, 23(2), 97-100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.ncq.0000313756.48902.b1
Stock, G., & McFadden, K. (2017). Improving service operations: linking safety culture to hospital performance. Journal Of Service Management, 28(1), 57-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/josm-02-2016-0036
Wallis, L. (2013). Two Steps toward Improving Patient Care and Safety. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 113(6), 15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.naj.0000431250.23181.3e
