Overcoming Challenges in Nursing: What Nurses Face Daily

Nursing has become one of the largest and important health professions in the world, without them doctors would not be able to do their jobs properly. Nurses plan and provide medical and nursing care to patients in hospitals, homes, or another setting who may suffer from severe and enduring physical or mental illness. They tend to work in numerous locations such as hospitals, schools, nursing facilities, and much more. Nurses are crucial to all healthcare environments and take pride in their care they provide daily.

They face many challenges in today’s health environment such as busy workloads and long hours, education, workplace hazards, violence, and bully/ harassment. Nurses have a demanding job that requires a lot of skill and dedication. Many nurses are faced with numerous problems and do their best to overcome them on the job. By use of an interview a research paper and the statistic database, I analyze the challenges nurses faced and how they overcome them.

One of the problems nurses come across on the job is their busy workload and long hours.

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Due to there being a high demand for nurses a lot of them have to work long hours to make sure every shift is covered. Many are on call which means that they are on duty and must be available to work any time of the day without notice.” Working in hospital or nursing facilities patient may need round the clock care. Nurses in these sets usually work in shifts covering 24 hours.” (BLS).

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Being a nurse comes with a lot of responsibility and commitment meaning not a lot of time for family and other things. Nurses do an amazing job coping and finding ways to make the best of it. Crystal Thornton a nurse at a nursing facility stated in an interview, “ Beings nurse and working all those hours it seems like there is not enough time in the day to finish all my tasks.”

Being a nurse it seems like there not enough time in the day to finish everything that was said by Charge Nurse Crystal Thornton at a nursing facility in San Diego. She spends her days taking care of patients' needs such as providing medication and maintain a safe environment. She finds new and creative ways to solve problems to deal with short staff ad long hours. Nurses make sure they get plenty of rest before every shift. Drink plenty of water and make sure they prepare a healthy meal so they can be there to do their job, Having short staff and long workloads can cause nurses to stress and they can easily make mistakes. So they take precautions so they will not make mistakes.

Another common problem nurses come across is workplace hazards. A workplace hazard refers to a situation within the workplace that has the potential to cause injury or adverse health effects for people. “Nurse spend a lot of time walking, bending, stretching and standing. They are vulnerable to back injuries because they often must lift patients (BLS). Being a nurse requires them to be careful and take precautions so they won't end up in the hospital themselves. Nurse are put in contact with a lot of dangerous hazards especially when they come in contact with a patient who has an infectious disease. They also come in contact with potentially harmful and hazardous drugs and other substances. (BLS) Nursing deals with these problems on a daily basis and was trained on how to overcome these problems.

Nurses come across dangerous situations such as deadly diseases and patients who have a contagious infection. They go above and beyond to prevent them from getting infected with such diseases or infections. “Nurse follow a strict standardized guidelines to guard them against diseases and other dangers such as radiation, accidentals needle sticks, chemical used to create a sterile and clean environment” (BLS). Nurse follow safety measures in the workplace so they can make sure they stay health and keep a clean and safe atmosphere for other patients and staff. Crystal Thornton a Charge Nurse stated,” Maintaining a sterile work area and talking precautions such as wearing proper equipment such as mask and gloves when dealing with patients help minimizes my health concerns and reassure my safety. Also getting tested yearly”(personal interview). Taking precautions such as having a sterile work area and using a mask and gloves for every patient can prevent nurses from encountering diseases.

Violence in the workplace is a big challenge that nurse have to face on a daily bases. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic, “ Health care workers are more than four times as likely to experience assault at work that result in a injuries than any private-sector employer.”(BLS) Workplace violence is referred to as physical or psychologically damaging actions that occur in the workplace. Nurses have to deal with patients who may become combatted due to mental illness or lack of medication or just medical condition has changed. Dealing with these types of patient they can become violence. Nurse takes a lot of precautions when it comes to violence to overcome them and control the situation.

Nurses take numerous actions when it comes to preventing violence in the workplace. Many hospitals and companies require the staff to participate in training in violence preventions that help them when they are faced with violent situations such as a combatted patients. Although many violent situations can be prepared for they are required to follow protocol when such situations arise.

One crucial challenges most nurses come across is bullying and harassment. According to Nursing Times, “ Workplace bullying is a significant issues confronting the nurse profession.” Bullying and harassment can come from patients as well as other nurses and staff members. Nurse gets mistreated by patient in numerous ways such as patients calling them names because they can not receive more medication when they are in pain. A lot of times patients try to flirt with the nurses to gain access to meds and other supplies. Staff that has more experience in their field tend to belittle one year resident and make them do the scum work. According to A Difficult Mission to Work as a Nurse article,” Nurse feel unappreciated from patient and staff and are treated a certain way.” Bullying and harassment is not tolerated in the health profession so they are ways nurse overcome it. Nurse overcome challenges like this by talking to upper management about the situation. Identifying and confronting the bullying and reporting the incident to human resources when necessary.

Being a nurse is a demanding job and it comes with a lot of challenges/problems. Nurses do an excellent job overcoming and solving these problems. Nurses come across problems such as, heavy workloads/ long hours, workplace hazards, violence on the job, and bully/harassment and is still able to maintain caring for a patients. I have learned so much about nursing. Becoming a nurse takes a lot of patience and dedication. Nurses face a lot of challenges and still maintain themselves to be able to take care of others. Starting a career in nursing one most be full aware of all these challenges they face and ways to overcome them. Taking proper classes can prepare someone wanting to become a nurse but also doing research can help you better understand the responsibility a nurse has and deals with on a daily basis. Becoming a nurse may be hard work and long hours but at the end of the day, it is a great job that saves millions of people daily. They're a great feeling when you know you did your best to make someone's life a little better.

Work Cited

  1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Registered Nurses,
  2. Karlsson, Inger, et al. “A Difficult Mission to Work as a Nurse in a Residential Care Home – Some Registered Nurses’ Experiences of Their Work Situation.” Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, vol. 23, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 265–273.
  3. Thornton, Crystal. Personal interview, 20 October 2018,
Updated: Apr 26, 2021
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Overcoming Challenges in Nursing: What Nurses Face Daily. (2021, Apr 26). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/overcoming-challenges-in-nursing-what-nurses-face-daily-essay

Overcoming Challenges in Nursing: What Nurses Face Daily essay
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