Tag: burnout

The Medicine program in your hospital has been struggling with high volumes of acutely ill patients, and short staffing due to sick calls and burnout. Normal “surge” protocols are no longer working and even the float pool is depleted. The headlines are describing a dire situation indeed, with patients and families reporting long waits for call bells to be answered, and patients left in pain and without help to get to the bathroom. After a straight week of being unable to fill all vacant nursing assistant shifts, and months of overtime, the staff on one unit ask for an ethics consultation, to help them identify priorities for care. This is a situation that might benefit from a meeting to identify the major ethical concerns and collaborate on interventions that could relieve some of the pressure on staff. You attend the unit just before morning shift report. Gathering as many people as possible, you convene a short unit meeting to identify the biggest...