Emotional exhaustion among nursing professionals in an emergency unit, patient safety

Introduction: The work phenomenon of emotional exhaustion occurs among nursing professionals, affecting their personal health and well-being, influencing their skills and performance, and negatively impacting the quality of care and patient safety. Aim: This study aimed to explore the experiences of emotional exhaustion among nursing professionals working in an emergency unit and its influence on patient safety. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted with emergency nurses from a type C health center in the city of Quito, Ecuador. The study was limited to 10 participants based on saturation of information in the interviews. Coding and categorization were used to interpret the results. Results: The findings showed that nurses’ exhaustion can manifest as stress, fatigue, insomnia, frustration, poor performance, forgetfulness, and overload. When they must cover areas such as pharmacy and statistics within the unit, they are unable to adequately concentrate, leading to inadvertent errors in healthcare activities and thus negatively influencing patient safety. Conclusions: This exploration of emotional exhaustion among nurses reveals that they experience high workloads that can hinder their competencies and activities and prevent them from performing their work efficiently due to reduced physical and cognitive abilities. In terms of patient safety, which demands effective communication in the nurse-patient relationship, emotional exhaustion decreases nurse performance throughout the workday.