Self-care Strategies to Combat Burnout Among Pediatric Critical Care Nurses and Physicians.

CRITICAL care nurses; PSYCHOLOGICAL burnout; WELL-being; POSITIVE psychology; OCCUPATIONAL achievement; NEONATAL intensive care; SOCIAL support; ATTITUDES of medical personnel; RESEARCH methodology; PEDIATRICS; INTERVIEWING; QUALITATIVE research; PHENOMENOLOGY; EXPERIENCE; CRITICAL care medicine; JOB satisfaction; INTERPERSONAL relations; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; RESEARCH funding; PHYSICIANS; STATISTICAL sampling; JUDGMENT sampling; EMOTION regulation; DATA analysis software; HEALTH self-care; EMAIL

Background: Professional burnout is a widespread phenomenon in health care. The health of patients and organizations begins with the well-being of health care professionals. Identifying and understanding self-care strategies that professionals perceive to be helpful is crucial to combat burnout. Objective: To determine perceptions of self-care strategies to combat professional burnout among nurses and physicians in pediatric critical care settings. Methods: This was a qualitative descriptive study with a phenomenological overtone. The study was conducted in a 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit and an 8-bed intermediate care unit of a children's hospital in the United States. Information flyers and emails were used to introduce the study. A combination of convenience and purposive sampling methods was used to recruit participants who were full-time nurses and physicians in the 2 units. Information saturation was used to regulate sample sizes, resulting in 20 participants. Data were collected through a onetime face-to-face interview with each participant. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to analyze the data. The first author was the primary coder and discussed the codes with the coauthors throughout the coding process. Results: Six major self-care strategies were identified: finding meaning in work, connecting with an energy source, nurturing interpersonal connections, developing an attitude of positivity, performing emotional hygiene, and recognizing one's uniqueness and contributions at work. Conclusions: Developing effective self-care strategies helps promote health care professionals' physical and psychological well-being and reduce burnout. It is vital for health care professionals to care for themselves so that they can best care for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]