Date of Award

Fall 2024

Project Type

Clinical Doctorate

College or School

CHHS

Department

NURSING

Program or Major

DNP

First Advisor

Dr. Cathleen Colleran, DNP.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Background: Burnout is a pervasive issue among healthcare workers, particularly mental health nurses (MHNs), leading to emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased job satisfaction. Burnout is responsible for a high turnover in MHNs, low motivation, and medical errors which is the third leading cause of death, due to the stressors within the work environment. Mental health settings are marked with huge emotional challenges that lead to the characteristic burnout presentations exhibited by the staff. The local problem being addressed is that MHNs face significant stressors, including high workloads, aggressive patient interactions, and lack of support, which contribute to burnout. The resilience level of the nurses needs to be enhanced to further increase the level of self-care and burnout prevention measures that are available to the MHNs. The ongoing shortage of nurses in the U.S. worsens the situation, impacting the quality of mental health care. Purpose: This project aims to enhance resilience and reduce burnout among MHNs by promoting self-care practices. Local Problem: The mental health nurses of an acute in-patient psychiatric unit located in Excess County, NJ are experiencing high levels of burnout and stress due to the acuity and the demands of the patients and families. There was a need to promote psychological resilience and foster skills that helped to increase Mental Health Nurses’ ability to adapt to workplace adversities with the adoption of self-care modalities. Methods: The project is a quality improvement project with interventions including deep breathing, meditation, scheduled breaks, self-reflection, journalling and mindfulness. Results: The findings reveal that prior to the intervention, all MHAs exhibited low resilience levels, while a majority of LPNs and RNs also struggled with low resilience levels, highlighting a significant need for support in these roles. The mid-implementation results showed some improvement, particularly among MHAs and LPNs, indicating that the training was beginning to have a positive effect. However, RNs displayed mixed results, suggesting that while some benefited from the training, others may require additional resources or strategies to further enhance their resilience level. Post-implementation data indicated a remarkable 3 transformation in resilience levels, especially among MHAs, where 83% achieved normal resilience levels compared to none at the start. LPNs also showed strong improvement, with 75% reaching normal resilience. RNs, while showing some progress, still had 50% at low resilience levels, indicating that ongoing support may be necessary for this group to sustain and build upon their resilience gains. The study assessed the resilience levels of Mental Health Assistants (MHAs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Registered Nurses (RNs) before, during, and after an educational training program using the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Results indicated significant improvements post-implementation, with MHAs showing the most remarkable change from 100% low resilience pre-training to 83% normal resilience afterward. LPNs also improved, with 75% achieving normal resilience post-training, while RNs displayed mixed results, maintaining a 50% normal resilience level after the intervention. Conclusions: The study concluded that the educational training program and the implementation of self-care modalities significantly improved the resilience levels of Mental Health Assistants (MHAs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), and Registered Nurses (RNs). Post-implementation results showed that 83% of MHAs and 75% of LPNs achieved normal resilience levels, while RNs exhibited mixed outcomes, with 50% reaching normal resilience. These findings suggest that targeted training can effectively enhance resilience among healthcare professionals, although further support may be needed for RNs to achieve consistent improvements. Keywords: Burnout, Resilience, psychiatric health, Brief Resilience Scale, Depersonalization, Emotional exhaustion, lack of feelings of accomplishment, medical errors, self-care practices.

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