Nursing Rotation and Burnout in Mental Health Hospital

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I am an RMN working on the intensive care unit of a mental health hospital. Obviously funds are tight at the hospital and in recent years there have been a few different strategies implemented to cut costs related to staffing, some of which have been mutually beneficial, for example the move to 12 hour shifts was popular. However, on my unit at least it has been a rough year with lots of serious incidents, morale is low throughout the hospital and burnout seems to be becoming a big problem. There have been staffing issues on certain wards, and apparently in response to this management have decided to start up the previously unpopular internal rotation scheme once again. A lot of already exhausted staff, including myself, find this prospect very unsettling, as it feels with one thing and another we have already spent most of last year on a steep learning curve. Of course I can appreciate the benefits of learning new skills and gaining flexibility in ways of working, but with staffing stretched it seems unlikely that adequate supervision will be offered during periods of change, and the potential for mistakes is anxiety provoking. Management have commented they feel that ward cultures can become change resistive, but I can't help thinking they might be underestimating the value of consistency and familiarity in teams - of course a lot of mental health nursing is about being able to gauge the 'feel' of the unit and anticipating any problems and this does require experience of the environment. Knowing and understanding your colleagues enables you to better support them following any incidents also. The next proposal is that breaks, which are unpaid and not reliably facilitated as it is, will now need to be taken within the hospital premises and anybody taking a break will need to respond to alarms throughout the hospital. I know that money is tight and needs must and any change can be uncomfortable at first, but with morale already low it seems as though these changes, however well meaning, will only make things worse, and lots of staff seem to be talking about moving on. Has anybody else had experience of staff rotation within a mental health hospital, or been encouraged to take unpaid breaks still 'on the clock'? What effect did this have on you personally and on wider staff morale?

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

I work in an environment where rotation has been introduced to change culture, and the same concerns were raised.

It's a difficult balance but if there are concerns that there is a change resistant culture (and without more information it's difficult to say if this is right) then sometimes the only way forward is to move your team around.

For us it actually worked really well, and those that have rotated say they really benefitted from looking outside, if morale is poor it's hard to pull it back up without fresh ideas and new staff.