TY - JOUR

T1 - Burnout and staff experiences of health inequalities in children’s hospitals

T2 - a qualitative analysis

AU - Lunn, Judith

AU - Brennan, Louise

AU - Brewster, Liz

AU - Hindocha, Avni

AU - Patel, Pallavi

AU - Stowell, Caroline

AU - Isba, Rachel

PY - 2025/2/28

Y1 - 2025/2/28

N2 - Objectives To identify burnout constructs from descriptions of staff experiences of health inequalities operating across paediatric specialist hospitals and to categorise the constructs according to Leiter and Maslach’s six Areas of Worklife (AWL) model of burnout.Design A secondary data analysis of a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and focus groups.Setting The interviews and focus groups were conducted within nine children’s hospitals in England.Participants The dataset included responses from 217 individual staff members occupying various roles: leadership, clinical, professional and support. All staff who volunteered to participate were included in the study.Results The results of this exploratory analysis showed that psychological burnout constructs were frequently embedded in hospital staff’s descriptions of their experiences of health inequalities in hospitals, and relevant excerpts were found for all six domains of the AWL model. Staff described a work environment where socioeconomic disparities increased workload pressures, but efforts to improve services were frustrated by a perceived lack of control in decision making or professional recognition. There was ambiguity of role-based responsibilities for tackling health inequalities and an imbalance between organisational practices and personal and professional values of social justice.Conclusions There is a reciprocal relationship between health inequalities and burnout experienced by healthcare professionals operating within specialist children’s hospital settings. The extant knowledge and approaches to health inequalities and occupational burnout should be considered in tandem, integrated into quality improvement and operationalised within paediatric healthcare organisations to improve safety and quality of care.

AB - Objectives To identify burnout constructs from descriptions of staff experiences of health inequalities operating across paediatric specialist hospitals and to categorise the constructs according to Leiter and Maslach’s six Areas of Worklife (AWL) model of burnout.Design A secondary data analysis of a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and focus groups.Setting The interviews and focus groups were conducted within nine children’s hospitals in England.Participants The dataset included responses from 217 individual staff members occupying various roles: leadership, clinical, professional and support. All staff who volunteered to participate were included in the study.Results The results of this exploratory analysis showed that psychological burnout constructs were frequently embedded in hospital staff’s descriptions of their experiences of health inequalities in hospitals, and relevant excerpts were found for all six domains of the AWL model. Staff described a work environment where socioeconomic disparities increased workload pressures, but efforts to improve services were frustrated by a perceived lack of control in decision making or professional recognition. There was ambiguity of role-based responsibilities for tackling health inequalities and an imbalance between organisational practices and personal and professional values of social justice.Conclusions There is a reciprocal relationship between health inequalities and burnout experienced by healthcare professionals operating within specialist children’s hospital settings. The extant knowledge and approaches to health inequalities and occupational burnout should be considered in tandem, integrated into quality improvement and operationalised within paediatric healthcare organisations to improve safety and quality of care.

U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-095418

DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-095418

M3 - Journal article

VL - 15

JO - BMJ Open

JF - BMJ Open

SN - 2044-6055

IS - 2

M1 - e095418

ER -