Burnout in Nurses Working With Youth With Chronic Pain: A Pilot Intervention.

Objective: Nurse burnout is a significant issue, with repercussions for the nurse, patients, and health-care system. Our prior mixed-methods analyses helped inform a model of burnout in nurses working with youth with chronic pain. Our aims were to (a) detail the development of an intervention to decrease burnout; (b) evaluate the intervention's feasibility and acceptability; and (c) provide preliminary outcomes on the intervention. Method: In total, 33 nurses working on a pediatric inpatient care unit that admits patients with chronic pain conditions participated in the single-session 90-min groups (eight to nine nurses per group). The intervention consisted of four modules including (1) helping patients view pain as multifaceted and shift attention to functioning; (2) teaching problem-solving and reflective listening skills; (3) highlighting positives about patients when venting with coworkers; and (4) improving nurses own self-care practices. Measures provided assessment of feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness at baseline and 3 months postintervention in a single group, repeated measures design. Results: Data support the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Pilot outcome results demonstrated improvements in the target behaviors of education on psychosocial influences, self-care, and venting to coworkers as well as self-compassion, general health, and burnout. There were no changes in pain beliefs or the target behaviors of focus on functioning, empathizing with patient, or highlighting positives. Conclusions: Our single-session tailored group treatment was feasible and acceptable, and pilot data suggest that it is beneficial, but a more comprehensive approach is encouraged to reduce burnout that might be related to multiple individual, unit, and system factors.

Parental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Understanding of Anxiety (PABUA): Development and psychometric properties of a measure.

The Parental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Understanding of Anxiety (PABUA) was developed to assess parental beliefs about their child's anxiety, parents' perceived ability to cope with their child's anxiety and to help their child manage anxious symptoms, and to evaluate parents' understanding of various parenting strategies in response to their child's anxiety. The study evaluated the PABUA in mother-child dyads (N=192) seeking treatment for youth anxiety. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution and identified PABUA scales of Overprotection, Distress, and Approach (with Cronbach's alpha ranging from .67 to .83). Convergent and divergent validity of PABUA scales was supported by the pattern of associations with measures of experiential avoidance, beliefs related to children's anxiety, empathy, trait anxiety, and depressive symptoms; parent-reported family functioning; parent- and youth-reported anxiety severity; and parent-reported functional impairment (n=83). Results provide preliminary support for the PABUA as a measure of parental attitudes and beliefs about anxiety, and future studies that investigate this measure with large and diverse samples are encouraged.