Chapter 11: Final Conclusions
Hello Everyone!
Today’s post will be about the conclusion of my project!
The results from the data analysis indicated that the hypothesis was not rejected; the nurses at the hospital working with NAS babies presented with higher burnout than the nurses that were working with NAS babies at the clinic. Additionally, lower nurse-baby ratios and the use of the eat, sleep, and console method and the finnegan assessment tool every 12 hours correlated with lower risk of burnout among the nurses.
Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that although there was a lower risk of burnout present at the clinic, there were still responses that indicated the possibility of burnout. This leads us to the idea that although it is important to pick a care model that works best for helping the baby, it is also important to consider the mental health of the providers that actually have to work with these babies and protocols. Regardless of the degree of risk of burnout, improving working conditions for NAS nurses will also improve patients care outcomes. When nurses are less burdened by their mental health, they will be able to provide a higher quality of care.
This research highlights the importance of addressing the burnout and mental health concerns of nurses that work with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Additionally, findings from this study places emphasis on a need for evaluating and optimizing protocols for NAS babies so the nurses don’t get too worn out. Healthcare institutions should take great care in supporting their staff members given that treatment protocols could significantly impact the health of the nurses.
In the future, researchers should study the effectiveness of educational programs that are currently in place to train these NAS nurses in regard to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. These programs can be developed to focus on enhancing knowledge regarding substance management, communication with families, skills to soothe the baby, and most importantly self-care strategies to prevent negative impacts on the mental health of these nurses. Specifically, future research in this field should focus on identifying coping strategies for nurses when they are assigned to care for these NAS babies. This will contribute broadly to the scholarly conversation not only regarding provider burnout but also regarding caring for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
Thank you!