Comparison of Nursing Stress in Public and Private Hospitals

Many issues can cause job stress for nurses working in public and private hospitals. Healthcare institutions have different sizes and nature of work. Nurses face different working conditions, hours and understaffing thus causing stress.

Comparison of nursing stress between public and private hospital nurses shows that both environments have their unique difficulties. Public nurses have the more pressure as they work in the more demanding environment because of these factors:

Shortage of staff

The number of nurses all over the world is short of the workforce that should be serving t patients. It is tough for nurses in public facilities because they attend to more patients. The deficiency causes overworking that result in mental and physical exhaustion to levels that cause stressful consequences when it occurs frequently.

Public hospitals are the destination for most patients during emergencies or disasters. Helping the affected is a national obligation that compels the nurses on duty to work overtime until they salvage the situation.

The probability of error increases as a nurse increase as the number of hours on duty exceed the recommended time. It also adds to anxiety because errors in the medical field can be extremely costly to the well-being or life of a patient. Nurses who work for excessively long hour risk disruption of the natural circadian rhythm that controls the sleep/waking cycle.

Loss of family time

Working extra hours due to a shortage of nurses denies the public hospital nurses an opportunity to spend enough time with their families. Most of the time they are at work, and they only want to rest when they reach home to wake close to the time for going back on duty. The lack of emotional support reduces the motivation to work.

Lack of specialized materials

The nurses who serve in public hospitals in some developing countries have a severe stressor in the lack of specialized equipment that helps in reducing the risk of infections. The nature of your work makes them be at health risk when they come into contact with people with contagious infection without vital gear such as masks.

Nursing Stress in Private Hospitals

Although most of the issues that are likely to increase stress are at public hospitals, the nurses at private facilities also face hard times even if they do not attend to an extremely high number of patients. They also get anxious times because of these factors:

Demoralization

The management at private hospitals has much power and customs regulations that allow making of decisions without much or any consultation. The nurses feel that they lack the necessary p empowerment worth their professional status. Most think that the act compromises on their expertise because they are subject to role confusion and sometimes poor leadership.

A lack of participation by nurses in decisions strains the interpersonal relationships between colleagues and their superiors. Such conflicts diminish the social support at work leading to a rise in stress for functions that require teamwork.

Emotional draining

The concept of private hospitals is to provide much care as possible to their patients. This level of care giving can cause emotional draining. A nurse can get specific instruction to take care of a few or one patient. The combination of emotional attachment with a patient and other interpersonal relationships that develop at work can become a catalyst of the stress in some nurses. Nurses especially those who work in critical care units face an emotional challenge as they communicate with persons on the verge of death or in a tragic situation. The nurses also have to deal with the effects of societal changes such as an increase in violence or aggression because some patients show similar behavior at hospitals.

Day to day nursing comes with many potential stressors. Hospital management should appreciate that nurses are prone to stress and arrange ways of presenting and brainstorming issues that make their life harder.