Date of Submission
8-7-2022
Document Type
DiP
Degree
Doctor of Education
Department
Education
Keywords
moral distress, nursing shortage crisis, intensive care nurses, burnout, COVID-19
Abstract
There is a growing critical care nurse staffing shortage with increases in nurse vacancy rates. Moral distress has been exacerbated by the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic and, in particular, impacting critical care nurses. COVID-19 is a significant contributor to staffing shortages and continued nursing crisis. Thus, the impetus for the Problem of Practice (PoP): the lack of support to address the psychological, emotional, and spiritual distress suffered by critical care registered nurses in a tertiary care hospital in Central Ontario. To comprehend the realities of working in the intensive care units, leaders must first understand nurses’ lived experiences, narratives, and what it means to work on the frontline in an intensive care unit. The Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is underpinned by interpretive phenomenology and authentic and transformational leadership approaches. Lewin’s three-stage force field model of change theory is utilized for leading change and Burke and Litwin’s performance change model for the organizational analysis. The overall goal of the OIP is to implement a change plan that brings leaders and critical care registered nurses together to co-create support program(s) to address critical care nurses’ psychological, emotional, and spiritual distress, decrease nurse attrition, and enhance critical care nurses’ well-being.
Recommended Citation
Mazzotta, C. (2022). (Re) evaluating Critical Care Nurse Support Program(s) in a Tertiary Care Hospital: Intersecting the Art and Science of Nursing. The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University, 293. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/oip/293
Included in
Critical Care Nursing Commons, Higher Education Commons, Nursing Administration Commons, Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing Commons, Other Nursing Commons