There are currently more than 126,000 nursing positions across the nation in hospitals and health care facilities that are vacant, a number that is expected to increase to 400,000 by 2020 (Smith 2003, T18). The graying of the U.S. nursing population, decreased interest in the field due to high levels of responsibility and stress and comparatively low pay and burnout are the reasons behind the nursing shortage crisis that threatens to become epidemic over the next two decades. This research will focus on burnout among the psychiatric nursing community in order to provide a bit of history and background on psyche nurse burnout and a review of current literature. A conclusion will discuss a shifting paradigm in care of the self for psychiatric nurses that has evolved in light of the increasing rate of burnout.
Historically burnout among psychiatric nurses was not as commonplace as it is today. This is because nurses were plentiful for most of the 20th century and work-load and patient-to-nurse ratios were lower. Today’s environment includes higher levels of nursing burnout, higher stress and patient-to-nurse ratios, and workloads that require double shifts and overtime for a majority of days of each week. In states like California, Georgia and many others, budget shortages continue to see funding for state psychiatric health care facilities cut. This further increases stress on nurses as patient load and responsibility increases as do the numbers of hours spent providing patient care. As a result, many nurses are leaving the profession or disinclined to enter it when students. California faces a major shortage of psyche nurses. Recently the state passed a law to demand a patient-to-nurse ratio is set for all psychiatric units or health care facilities. Jill Furillo of the California Nurses Association says this law was passed not just to ensure better patient care but also as a means of keeping nurses from leaving the job...