Healthcare ’ s Big Disruption : Healthcare Future
CASE STUDY , CONTINUED
personal protective equipment ( PPE ). At the same time , nurses who weren ’ t treating COVID patients found themselves responsible for nearly doubled patient loads to free more clinicians for pandemic care . The stress was acute for staff , who worried about their own health and about taking the virus home unwittingly to family . Patient death occurred with a frequency even experienced nurses had never seen .
As a result , nurse burnout is happening on multiple levels . Some nurses are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder , and others are angry at the hospital for the situation . Many nurses , especially those early in their careers , question whether the profession is even worth the level of stress involved . More than ever , clinicians are thinking about their quality of life and making decisions to support it with moves and different career choices . Maule describes the RN staffing crisis in many of her hospital departments , where nurses with only a few years of experience now may be the dominant labor force as a result of widespread departures . Nursing vacancies have more than tripled , with many clinicians choosing to leave the hospital completely . Many nurses who are still early in their careers found it easy to make the decision to leave , but “ older , more experienced nurses weathered the storm better .”
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