Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2024

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

Public Policy and Law

First Advisor

Abigail Fisher Williamson

Abstract

This thesis explores how federal and state governments, as well as individual hospitals, respond or fail to respond to pediatric nurse burnout. The problem of nurse burnout is not new, and can cause nurses to make mistakes on shift, experience increased anxiety and depression, and increase risk of patient death or injury. Solutions to burnout in healthcare workers have been organized at the hospital, state, and federal government level. However, this thesis examines a lack of research on pediatric nurse burnout more specifically. After reviewing the national landscape of hospital-based solutions, short-term policy solutions, and long-term policy solutions, I examine the effects of policies within one hospital and state through twelve interviews with pediatric nurses at Connecticut Children’s Hospital. I find that in pediatric nurses, burnout is cyclical and relational – reliant on fluctuations in staffing patterns and resulting dynamics both among nurses and between nurses and hospital management. Because nurses often do not trust hospital administrators, anti-burnout programs that require more hospital involvement are utilized less and viewed more negatively, especially by nurses who have lower trust in the hospital. Regarding state-level policies, nurses want to be involved in creating ratios (as Connecticut’s current policy enables), but they also want the government to have a strong enforcement mechanism to hold hospitals accountable for staffing ratios. Even though they seek government enforcement, nurses express doubt that policymakers understand or care about their specific circumstances. Overall, I find multiple policy solutions to the problem of nursing burnout in Connecticut, at the hospital level, short-term state level, and long-term state level. Connecticut Children’s could increase the effectiveness and awareness of preexisting programs, combat the cyclical nature of burnout by hiring break nurses on each unit to address understaffing, and address the relationality of burnout by adding nurse retention programs to encourage trust in the hospital. For the short-term, the state should alter its current staffing ratio policy to increase its own power in enforcement and allow nurses to report unsafe ratios. Finally, over the long-term, the state should make substantial contributions to nursing schools to help build out the nursing pipeline in a way that shows they value professional nurse expertise.

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