Nurses battle burnout as hospitals face staffing concerns

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Burnout in the workplace is nothing new. It can happen to anyone at any stage of their career, but for nurses, the problem is nearly an epidemic, and research suggests it could negatively impact the care they provide.

Mariel Barneski has been working as a telemetry nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital for about two years, and she’s already seen many of her colleagues come and go.

“We’re often short staffed, which can be really hard both physically and emotionally.”

She told Western Mass News that significant staffing issues are causing burnout and pushing her colleagues out of not just bedside care, but for some, the profession altogether.

“A lot of nurses aren’t able to take their full lunch break in a twelve-hour shift and that’s really grueling.”

This can have an impact on the care they provide.

“It’s really demoralizing when day after day, shift after shift, we’re filling out unsafe staffing forms. It can be truly dangerous for patients.”

But Barneski isn’t alone. According to recent data published by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, 80-percent of nurses say the quality is getting worse, blaming too few staff and a lack of support from management.

Barneski loves what she does, but is concerned about what the future looks like.

“I’m pregnant with my first kid and I’m kind of thinking about work-life balance as a new mom. I already feel anxiety around if we’re short staffed, how am I going to get off the floor to pump? I want to be able to stick it out.”

Still, some healthcare leaders are listening, as Baystate Medical Center Chief Nursing Officer Joanne Miller expressed, “They are the heartbeat of healthcare.”

At Baystate, hospital leaders find recent data concerning, which paints a grim picture when it comes to just how physically and emotionally exhausted nurses are.

They’ve tackled this issue head on, creating and constantly expanding their holistic nursing programs, with this simple question at the forefront of everything they do:

“How can we heal our healers?”

It started with a simple idea and a few spare rooms, as Program Director of Holistic Nursing Cidalia Vital told us, “The room we’re standing in started by a thought from one of our staff nurses.”

Since 2018, it’s grown from one to 13 ‘renewal’ rooms.

“They wanted these rooms; they created these rooms.”

Each room, designed with ‘zen’ in mind, have aromatherapy, music and a massage chair when staff need a moment to reset.

Joanne Miller added, “[If] three hours into your shift, you could have a difficult experience, you could lose a patient you love [and] that you’ve had a relationship with for years; you have eight more hours of your shift left to go. This is place for the nurse to go.”

Nurse Alexandra Boden said, “Our job can, as rewarding as it can be, it can be very taxing physically, mentally and emotionally sometimes.”

Alexandra Boden is a nurse at Baystate, and she often finds time to slip away from her busy schedule on the cardiac floor to use one of these rooms.

“We have to have times and places and spaces specifically designated to our own relaxation and kind of clocking out of our stress here, because if we don’t, we do burnout.”

Research suggests one in five nurses in Massachusetts plan to leave the profession within two years, citing burnout and exhaustion as major reasons for leaving.

Hospitals around the state are struggling to cope with the staffing crisis, but Baystate leaders said its programs, like the renewal rooms, are helping them push the needle in the right direction.

“In the last year, we’ve seen a 5% decrease in turnover at the bedside for our nurses – so we think we’re doing something right!”

But the work is not done yet. Barneski said things like critical shift bonuses, in other words, making a little extra when the unit is short-staffed, would go a long way in boosting morale.

And over at Baystate, they’re continuing their mission to ‘heal the healer,’ with several holistic programs in the works.

We reached out to Cooley Dickinson Hospital for a response to some of Barneski’s concerns. They sent us a statement which reads, in part:

“Like nearly all hospitals nationwide, we are facing unprecedented staffing challenges driven by a nationwide shortage of healthcare professionals, increased patient demand, and increased acuity of patients. We are focused intently on addressing staffing challenges through a variety of recruitment efforts, retention programs, and continual evaluations of staffing needs. We have open channels for staff to voice their concerns and an unwavering commitment to working collaboratively with our nursing teams to create a supportive working environment.”