Sharon W. Shih1, Nikita Rodrigues1, Lindsey L. Cohen1, Meredith Bishop1
1) Georgia
Pediatric chronic abdominal pain is challenging to the young patient and parent, but can also be stressful for nurses providing care on an inpatient unit. Given the high rate of burnout in the nursing profession, there is clinical value to identifying predictors of burnout in nurses working with pediatric patients with chronic abdominal pain. Moral distress – the discomfort in being aware of morally appropriate actions (e.g., providing pain alleviation) but being unable to fulfill such actions (e.g., no effective interventions) – has been associated with nurse burnout in other pediatric populations (e.g., oncology). Pain beliefs (personal views on pain treatment) and venting/complaining to coworkers may be unique to nursing burnout in pediatric chronic abdominal pain. The aim of this study was to investigate whether moral distress, pain beliefs, or venting were related to burnout in nurses working on an inpatient pediatric chronic abdominal pain unit.
32 female nurses age 23-57 (M = 35.53 years, SD = 11.17) completed measures assessing moral distress, pain beliefs, venting to coworkers, and burnout. Correlations and multiple linear regressions were conducted.
Moral distress (r=.48, p=.01) and venting to coworkers about patients (r = -.36, p = .043) were significantly correlated with nurse burnout. A regression revealed that a model including moral distress and venting significantly predicted burnout (R2 =.26, F(2,25)=4.48, p=.02) with only moral distress significantly contributing to the variance in burnout (β=.44, t(27)=2.49, p=.02). Pain beliefs were not significantly related to nursing burnout.
These data indicate that moral distress may be a contributor to burnout in nurses working with pediatric patients with chronic abdominal pain. Unfortunately, there are few studies examining burnout in nurses working with pediatric patients with pain conditions. Given the negative effects of burnout on the nurses, patients, and medical institutions, additional research in moral distress, burnout, and related variables is warranted.
