SHOULD NURSES BE REQUIRED TO WORK OVERTIME? (Essay Sample)

SHOULD NURSES BE REQUIRED TO WORK OVERTIME? Student’s Name Class Information Date In the modern world, nurses are mandated to work in twelve-hour shifts as opposed as to the traditional eight-hour shifts in a hospital setting. Nonetheless, unmet staffing needs due to unplanned staff absence and patient overloads makes the shifts unpredictable most of the time. This phenomenon forces nurses to work overtime beyond their normal working shifts. Previous studies have shown that there are negative effects associated with nursing overtime. For instance, according to Cathleen Wheatley, “researchers exploring the effects of nursing overtime have identified relationships between overtime and practice errors, nurse fatigue and injuries, and adverse patient outcomes.” Therefore, based on the negative impacts of nursing overtime on quality care, nurses should not be required to work overtime.[Cathleen Wheatley, “Nursing Overtime: Should It Be Regulated?,” Nursing Economics 35, no. 4 (2017): pp. 214.] According to Cathleen Wheatley, “t he healthcare industry faces ongoing challenges with cost containment, workforce shortages, and a growing chronically ill patient population.” The problem is further exacerbated by limitations in health care funding, a growing shortage of health care providers around the world, and an aging population that puts more pressure on the existing health care facilities. In order to meet this growing demand, hospital managers employ the strategy of requiring their nursing staff to commit to either mandatory or voluntary overtime. However, “concerns have arisen about the negative impact of overtime on both nurses and patients due to nurse fatigue from long work hours, inadequate sleep, and inadequate recovery time between shifts.” The evidence shows that nurses should not be required to work overtime to avoid burnout, dissatisfaction, and employee turnover, which is costlier to the establishment in the long run.[Wheatley, “Nursing Overtime,” 213.] [Ibid.] [Ibid.] [Ibid.] Studies have shown that employees who work for nominal hours, that is, between six and eight hours a day, exhibit high levels of productivity and are able to manage their work and social life. On the contrary, long working hours adversely affects employee motivation, which leads to high rates of employee turnover. Working overtime negatively affects the mental and physical health of the nursing staff, which in turn negatively affects the quality of patient care. Moreover, the study conducted by Son et al. showed that nurses who worked less than 40 hours per week exhibited high levels of patient safety competencies compared to their counterparts who worked more than 40 hours per week. Furthermore, health care practitioners who worked more than 50 hours per week were the least satisfied with their jobs and recorded higher levels of patient accidents. Therefore, nursing organizations should formulate policies that prohibit health care facilities from requiring nurses to work overtime.[Rajan D, “Negative Impacts of Long Working Hours: A Comparative Study among Nurses,” MOJ Applied Bionics and Biomechanics 1, no. 2 (2017): pp. 60.] [Ibid.] [Youn-Jung Son, Eun Kyoung Lee, and Yukyung Ko, “Association of Working Hours and Patient Safety Competencies with Adverse Nurse Outcomes: A Cross-Sectional Study,” International Jou...