Background of Study
The clinical problem in the research by Nowrouzi et al. (2015) is the reduction of work stress negative influence on recruitment and retention of nurses. The research problem is the assessment of workplace interventions aimed at managing occupational stress and burnout of nurses. The issue of professional burnout and occupational stress among nurses is not new. However, previous investigations were mainly focused on occupational stress, the health of nurses, burnout, job-related injuries, causes of nurses’ shortage, and job satisfaction. At the same time, there are not many studies dedicated to the evaluation of interventions aimed at reducing job stress, an increase in the quality of life among nurses, and reduction of work absenteeism. This evaluation would allow the application of the interventions in healthcare facilities thus improving nurses’ quality of work-life, reducing burnout, and work-related stress, which is expected to result in better patient outcomes.
The authors establish the significance of the study by underlining the importance of applying research to practice. It is necessary to avoid work stress and burnout among nurses because of the low quality of work-life results in problems with recruiting qualified staff and poor retention. Thus, the World Health Organization states that as of 2014, there was “a global shortage of 7.2 million health care workers,” which is expected to exceed 12.9 million by 2035 (Nowrouzi et al., 2015, p. 308). Consequently, there is a necessity to define interventions for improving nurse quality of work-life, reducing burnout, and contributing to employee retention.
The purpose of the study is to assess the interventions related to work environments and quality of work-life which are aimed at managing nurse burnout and stress.
The authors do not state any research questions clearly. It is evident from the context of the article that the research question is: What are the interventions connected with work environments and quality of work-life of nurses that can be used to reduce work stress and burnout among nurses.
The purpose and the research question are related to the problem of this study.
Method of Study
The qualitative methods were appropriate to answer the research questions because a literature review is a suitable method to study the existing research and their results. Search in databases provides material for all the key questions which are important for the research and allows the further application of research results to practice through summarizing the existing evidence.
The authors did not identify any specific perspective from which the study was developed.
The authors used 54 sources in their study. The review includes both qualitative and quantitative researches relevant to the issue in question. Apart from the research articles, the authors use books and data from health organizations such as WHO.
Not all the references are current for the research. However, the majority of references fit the 5 years before the study. Nevertheless, older sources are also valid because it is a qualitative study, and earlier investigations contribute to the depth of the problem analysis.
The authors focus on the findings of the available studies related to the topic and do not pay attention to any weaknesses of these researchers. Still, the review of literature, which is the major part of this research, is deep enough to be a basis for logical arguments. No theoretical framework was developed for this research.
Results of Study
The study findings are divided into some categories each of which provides specific implications to nursing, such as workplace and nursing, stress management interventions, and burnout intervention studies (Nowrouzi et al., 2015). The authors found out that a previous researcher agreed that workplace stress is typical of nursing. For example, shift work, irregular work hours, sometimes toxic chemicals, work in the environment of diseases, and death cause work stress (Nowrouzi et al., 2015). Other findings include stress-reduction interventions, for example, mindfulness-based stress reduction, which proved to reduce perceived stress and increase self-compassion. As for burnout, the researchers revealed that geography can be one of the factors contributing to work stress. At the same time, psychological intervention training proved to have a positive effect on burnout reduction.
The findings of the study contribute to nursing knowledge and science because they provide a summary of the evidence which can be used both in practice and further research. For example, the research findings were applied as a part of the theoretical basis for further researches, such as the study of the influence of the work-related stress and job burnout in private educational institutions and universities by Ahmed, Vveinhardt, Meeai, and Jalees (2018), and an investigation dedicated to the identification of indicators of healthy work environments in nursing as determinants of health in the 21st century (Bragadóttir, 2016). Moreover, the authors recommend their research findings for administrators and health policymakers who are responsible for the creation of appropriate work environments, which can contribute to stress and burnout reduction as well as to retention increase.
Ethical Considerations
The authors did mon mention that the study was approved by an Institutional Review Board. No patients were involved; thus the issue of patient privacy protection is not mentioned as well. The only ethical consideration regarding the study is that there was no conflict of interest within the research by Nowrouzi et al. (2015).
Conclusion
Summarizing the research article, it should be mentioned that the thesis statement is important because it determines the further presentation of the research. For this article, the thesis statement follows the purpose of the research and outlines the focus of the investigation under analysis. The research article touches on an issue that is crucial for healthcare on the whole and nursing practice in particular. The problem of work stress and burnout is not a medical one and is frequently left aside. However, nurses who work in not favorable conditions and are not able to manage work-related stress are likely to develop burnout, which, in turn, may lead to undesirable patient outcomes.
Consequently, the findings of the study can be applied in nursing practice because they comprise the summary of the interventions which are used for reducing work stress and burnout. On the whole, the authors stress the importance of the work environment for nurses, focus on the necessity of increasing work-life conditions of nursing staff, and analyze the interventions which were studied in the previous researches. These interventions are expected to have a positive impact on the work of nurses by providing stress management techniques, improving working conditions, and reducing burnout among nurses. These achievements are likely to lead to an increase in the quality of care and, finally, result in the improvement of patient outcomes which is one of the major purposes of healthcare on the whole.
References
Ahmed, R., Vveinhardt, J., Meeai, Y., & Jalees, T. (2018). Impact of the work related stress and job burnout in private educational institutions and universities. In Proceedings of ICERI2015 Conference (pp. 4718-4728). Seville, Spain.
Bragadóttir, H. (2016). Identifying indicators of healthy work environments in nursing as determinants of health in the 21st century. Creative Nursing, 22(4), 218-225.
Nowrouzi, B., Lightfoot, N., Larivière, M., Carter, L., Rukholm, E., Schinke, R., & Belanger-Gardner, D. (2015). Occupational stress management and burnout interventions in nursing and their implications for healthy work environments. Workplace Health & Safety, 63(7), 308-315.