Nurses have an undeniably hard job. Between the strenuous physical, mental and emotional demands and the long hours, it could take a toll on anyone.
But can exhaustion from the job actually threaten a nurse’s license?
Ways that nurses may lose their license
Digital Health Buzz takes a look at the various ways that a nurse may lose his or her license. When most people think about a nurse losing his or her job, they usually think about the potential laws they might have broken.
For example, one common way that nurses have lost their jobs in the past involves falsification of prescription or the theft of prescription drugs. Unfortunately, a number of nurses develop addictions to medication, especially opiates and pain medications, and have easy access to it.
However, exhaustion is an underlying cause of many different reasons to let a nurse go. For example, negligent treatment of patients is one of the fastest ways for a nurse to either get fired or lose their license.
How exhaustion impacts negligence
Most nurses would not commit acts of negligence on purpose, however. In many cases, negligence simply serves as a byproduct of an overworked, understaffed hospital.
In short, nurses have a higher tendency to make mistakes or commit negligent acts when overworked. Exhaustion often ties into this. A nurse running on a few hours of sleep will make many more mistakes than a nurse with a full night of sleep.
Depending on the type of mistakes that happen, this could even lead to a nurse losing his or her license, making exhaustion on the job a formidable problem.