The average registered nurse (RN) wants more sleep, authority, respect, and work–life balance, according to a survey on RN stress released June 30 by a company that trains legal nurse consultants.
"The registered nurses taking care of you are extremely stressed out — and dangerously so," stated the report from the Vicki Milazzo Institute (VMI), which conducted the survey.
VMI found that 64% of RNs get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night only on an infrequent basis. "Going hand in hand with the lack of sleep," the report stated, "are the extended 12-hour shifts, sometimes without breaks and sometimes throughout the night."
"Working nights has my routine off," said one RN. "I feel sleepy and lethargic all the time and am afraid that I will make mistakes at work."
Roughly 3 in 4 RNs also reported that they do not eat at least 2 balanced meals per day on a regular basis. The report recommended that in addition to making hours more humane, hospitals should give RNs access to nutritious meals and snacks.
Off hours are supposed to reenergize the weary, at least in theory, but two thirds of nurses said it is difficult to focus on things they enjoy outside of work. One respondent cited "mental strain I carry over from my job to the rest of my life."
One workplace strain is a perceived lack of authority: 24% of respondents said they have none at all, and 51% said they have some but want more. In a similar vein, 34% said they flat out do not feel respected or appreciated.
Predisposed Survey Sample?
VMI polled RNs online in May and received responses from 3312 of them. The survey questions were posted on both the VMI Web site and Nurses.com, as well as spread through social media, company marketing manager Brandy de Leon told Medscape Medical News. Roughly half of the responses came through the VMI Web site, De Leon said.
The survey, titled "Are You Way Too Stressed Out?" does not have the trappings of scientific validity. Consider the issue of a predisposed sample: VMI trains and certifies legal nurse consultants who work with plaintiff and defense attorneys in medical liability cases. The company Web site prompts RNs to consider this career with headlines such as "Kiss 12-Hour Shifts Goodbye!" The survey responses from Web-site visitors possibly in the market for a new job may skew the overall results toward higher stress than lower stress, said Maureen Shawn Kennedy, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing, in an email interview with Medscape Medical News.
Nevertheless, the VMI survey results resemble those uncovered by more rigorous studies, said Kennedy.
"Nurses are stressed, and I think most of what the respondents indicate are the usual reasons given in...valid research," she said. "Nursing has always been a demanding, stressful profession, but stresses today are exacerbated by changes in types of patient and shorter time to care for them, changeovers in hospital processes (going to electronic health records seems to be driving folks crazy), and new demands for accountability and effectiveness.
"It's all falling on nurses."
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Cite this: RNs 'Extremely Stressed Out,' Survey Says - Medscape - Jul 04, 2014.
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