Burdensome situations in everyday nursing: an explorative qualitative action research on a medical ward

Everyday nursing care is under marked constraint in the current healthcare environment due to decreasing time resources and competing financial demands. Burden along with stress and burnout is increasing. Stress not only does occur on the individual and organizational level, as has been studied, but also is a significant factor at the team level, particularly with regard to interactions at this level. This project aimed at eliciting nurses' view on burden; identifying areas for intervention on team level; and evaluating the interventions implemented at this level. Focus groups were conducted with 2 nursing teams (n = 36). Data were analyzed with Atlas Ti, Version 4.2. On the basis of the results of the focus groups, interventions were developed and implemented observing the tenets of problem-based learning and evidence-based nursing. Verbal feedback was used to evaluate the impact of the interventions on the nursing team. Fourteen themes were identified for each ward as areas for improvement. Oral evaluation of the group-specific interventions revealed a benefit for the nursing team as a whole. Findings indicate that team actions played an important role when addressing stressful nursing situations. To improve stressful nursing situations, team action needs to be considered.