Research proposal

AN EXPLORATION OF STRESS AMONG MENTAL HEALTH NURSES IN ACUTE SETTING: CONTRIBUTIONS OF SCHWARTZ CENTRE ROUNDS

Introduction

This chapter introduces this research work by giving an account of the background to the study and providing the aim and rationale that motivated the interest to undertake this research review. It also outlines the expected outcome as well as the structure of the written work.

OVERVIEW

This chapter introduces the topic by detailing the background to the study as well as outlining its aims, rationale and expected outcomes. The chapter then ends with a brief outline of the organizational structure of the written work.

This research will focus on stress among nurses in acute ward. Stress in the field of nursing profession is a huge global issue, this also involves all fields of healthcare professionals and is seen as an essential health and safety issues. It is highly important to address these problems within an organisation where individuals work, as failure to address this issue of stress among mental health nurses can affect and impact on the physical, psychological, and the emotional well-being of a person’s health. In view of this, study shows that not stress is caused by workplace, the home environment can also contribute to stress (Holmes, 2001).

This paper aims to propose my innovation idea on Schwartz as a newly qualified mental health graduate, it will analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of using Schwartz Rounds to monitor emotional stress related the job stress among mental health nurses. I will be focusing on Schwartz as my proposed intervention to evaluate its effectiveness in addressing the emotional challenges faced by mental health nurses in acute settings. This innovation will be cost effective and will aid nurses and other healthcare professionals who are going through emotional, challenges at work to be more open about issues affecting them.

BACKGROUND

Reducing stress among Mental Health Nurses (MHNs) is vital since it has significant impact on their wellbeing as well as professional performance and consequently care service provision in mental health institutions (Cheng et al, 2017). Moreover, the impact of stress may result in absenteeism, work dissatisfaction which may be costly to the health institution (Taylor &Basling, 2004). In a Labour Force Survey (LFS) in the UK for 2018/2019, it was accounted that stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 44% of all cases of work – related ill-health cases and 54% of all working days lost due to ill-health with the number of days lost for productive work due to these cases was 602,000 (HSE, 2009).

Potentiality of the topic:

There is relatively higher tendency for MHNs to be involved with incidents and situations that arouse physical and emotional aggressions leading to post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) as well as burnout that arises due to excessive physical and emotional demands, as a comparison to their counterparts in other health institutions. Fu et al, (2018) acknowledged that demands of the job can lead to emotional exhaustion and anxiety. (2018) is of the view that MHNs have the tendency to be unobtrusively stigmatized as a reflection of stigma associated with mentally disordered patients.

AIMS

Interventions aimed at reducing stress and its impact on MHNs may be focused on evaluations of nurses at pre and post-traumatic incidence. According to Olashore et al, (2018) pre-placement personality evaluation of health workers to be assigned to work in psychiatric units and post-trauma counselling of those exposed to violence may be beneficial in reducing the occurrence of PTSD in mental hospital health care workers. Fu et al, (2017) also proposed that increasing friends and family social support may be useful in reducing negative effects of secondary traumatic stress for MHNs. Simaes et al (2018) proposed that interventions may be focused on reducing work perception as a threat and on making MHN jobs as challenging and controllable. Similarly, Gates et al (2011) proposed that workplace policies and procedures are needed that focus on the security of the environment, reporting and surveillance, and education for all

The aim of this study includes the following:

• To review the perceived causes of stress among MHNs.
• To review effective interventions that are used in reducing stress among MHNs.
• To outline the impact of interventions for reduction of stress on the well-being and performance of MHNs