Baptist Hospital Mutengene (BHM) has enlightened Nurses on Causes of burnout, Consequences and Innovations to tackle it.

This was during a Nurses’ Conference that took place on November 29, 2024 at the Hospital’s Chapel. Holding under the theme, “Reviving the heart of Nursing: Building Resilience to combat burnout, nurses were drawn from BHM, satellite health facilities, partner health institutions and training schools in the Southwest Region of #Cameroon.

The Conference was organized by the BHM Administration and led by the Supervisor of Nursing Services (SNS) Mme. Yong Genevieve.

Burnout is described as the gradual physical, mental, and emotional erosion due to long term involvement in emotionally demanding and unfulfilling situations. These include exhaustion, depersonalization, achievement void, compassion fatigue etc. The nursing field is technically very demanding with nurses witnessing death, human grief, and suffering every day. It also demands a lot of their humanity: their minds, hearts and spirits.

In a presentation titled, “Preventing Burnout by Developing Resilience,” Mr. Ndzi Eric Ngah prescribed resilience as the antidot for burnout and compassion as the emotional response when perceiving suffering. Taking participants through resilience and compassionate strategies to keep them strong while rendering services, he encouraged staff [nurses] to value self-care and to use available self-care activities that involve the physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual etc. Nurses were charged to use all preventive measures to ensure that burnout does not hinder their work and their lives.

In her keynote address, the SNS recognized the nurses for their patient care and reiterated the importance of self-care. She buttressed the importance of an environmentally friendly workspace and open communication with the Administration and colleagues, amongst other valuable virtues that promote a convivial and stress-free work-life space. The nurses are needed in all vibrance to protect the future of the profession, she noted.

The Nurses’ Conference was a forum where nurses who are at the forefront of health care delivery were given the opportunity to state the cause, consequences of burnout and provide innovative strategies that can be implemented at BHM and also serve as a best practice in other health structures.

The event was sponsored by Gima-Bambot Healthcare and Biopharcam Sarl, National partners of the CBC Health Services in Cameroon.