Change fatigue in nurses: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aims: To provide a conceptual update on change fatigue in nursing as it relates to rapid and continuous change implementation. This doctoral dissertation examined nurses' experiences of rapid and continuous organizational change, with a core component of the study examining the concept of change fatigue. Background: Change fatigue is understood as the overwhelming feelings of stress, exhaustion and burnout fuelled by feelings of ambivalence and powerlessness associated with rapid and continuous change in the workplace. Change fatigue may cause workers to become withdrawn and greatly influences their decision to leave the workplace and even their profession. Little research to date has explored change fatigue in nurses. Methods: Were qualitative in nature. Design: A critical hermeneutic approach was used. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 Registered Nurses. Open-ended questions were used. Theoretical thematic analysis and inductive analysis of data were completed using Brown and Gilligan's voice-centred relational method. The study spanned from 2015-2018. Results: Nurses did experience many of the core elements of change fatigue noted in the non-nursing literature, including exhaustion, apathy, powerlessness, and burnout. Two additional themes emerged pertaining to nurses' understandings of why they were experiencing change fatigue. These themes included the intensification of nursing work and repeated and ongoing self-sacrifice. Conclusion: Participants offered important insight into an emergent concept in the discipline of nursing. Impact: The negative experiences associated with change fatigue are important for administrators and other stakeholders to recognize and acknowledge, as they must work to alleviate change fatigue in their institutions to preserve the well-being of the nursing workforce. This knowledge is also important to nursing scholars, who may further research the topic and embed it into nursing curricula.

Nurses’ Workplace Conditions Impacting Their Mental Health during COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study

“…Pre-COVID-19 evidence has linked feelings of stress with rapid and continuous changes in the workplace. This source of stress, known as "change fatigue", is associated with adverse nurse outcomes, including EE [48][49][50][51].…”

The relationship of nursing work environment and innovation support with nurses' innovative behaviours and outputs

“…is a paradigm shift through which research is increasingly focused on the individual, safe and quality service, understanding of excellence and the evaluation of the service according to the value it adds to individuals (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). In addition, efficiency, productivity and cost controlling have gained importance with economic policies while increasing health care costs (McMillan & Perron, 2020). Accordingly, nurses have an important role in developing and implementing innovation to improve patient outcomes and organisational outcomes, and to ensure efficiency (Bunpin et al, 2016).…”

“This is streets ahead of what we used to do”: Staff perceptions of virtual clinical pharmacy services in rural and remote Australian hospitals

“…Staff identi ed potential time saving with the pharmacist performing medication reconciliation and medication lists which would otherwise be performed by nurses. Change fatigue was not identi ed as a factor in VCPS implementation although some tasks, such as taking telehealth equipment to the bedside, were considered more appropriate for administration staff [22,24]. This is the rst multicentre study to examine healthcare staff perceptions of an inpatient virtual pharmacy service in detail.…”

“…This is also true for virtual models of care, where, staff are vulnerable to increasing work demands and new or adapted tasks that are rarely considered in implementation planning [23]. Even when a healthcare gap is lled, change fatigue can leave health care workers, in particular nurses, feeling burnt out and apathetic [24], resulting in increased safety risks and increased medication errors [25].…”