Compassion to crashing? Nursing research targets better care for carers
Burnout and “compassion fatigue” are occupational hazards in high-stress nursing careers.
Now a CQUniversity researcher wants a better understanding of the factors that contribute to burnout – and brings her own tough experience of burnout to the study.
CQU PhD candidate Janine Hockley says “dogs and donuts”-style wellbeing initiatives fail to address individual and systems-level issues creating occupational stress for Australia’s biggest health care workforce.
“In reality, nurses are facing real issues around rostering, staffing, workload, admin burden and even occupational violence from patients – and we want to hear how these, and other contributing factors impact feelings of overwhelm and burnout,” she said.
The Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care forecasts an undersupply of nearly 80,000 nurses by 2035, with high attrition and burnout driving the shortage.
The CQU study asks nurses to reflect on their career motivations, experiences and challenges, with a survey open to more than 400,000 nurses across Australia.
The confidential nurse wellbeing survey invites enrolled and registered nurses currently practising in Australia to participate; and requires less than 30 minutes.
Care overload
More than 40 years in health management and leadership roles has given Janine Hockley a unique perspective on a career in caring – and what happens when it comes crashing down.
The Brisbane health care leader began investigating staff wellbeing and resilience as part of her role at Children’s Health Queensland in 2016, and realised how hard burnout could hit healthcare workers.
“Our taskforce kept hearing nurses describe feelings of ‘we’re drowning out here’, and ‘it’s like the death of a thousand cuts’… support for nursing workforce simply had to be more than just the introduction of yoga sessions and green smoothies, or therapy dogs and donuts,” she said.
Janine completed her Master of Applied Positive Psychology with CQUniversity in 2019 – and what happened next was “painful irony”.
“I am a burnout researcher, but after the pandemic was so hugely challenging for healthcare workforces, there was a need for health care to return to business as usual and continue to expand and deliver high-quality service,” she explained.
“But staff were universally exhausted… and then last year, for me work simply became overwhelming, and the burnout researcher burnt out,” she said.
Janine took nine months to recover, and now understands firsthand how the overwhelm hits.
“I became incredibly unwell, with Stage 2 hypertension, at risk of a heart attack or stroke. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t regulate my emotions, and could no longer function in my professional role.
"It impacted every area of my life; my nervous system had forgotten how to switch off, and I was running on empty,” she explained.
“Now I’ve been back at work for six months, and I realise that for so long I was just coping, keeping up my big persona, doing the daily juggle, juggle, juggle; and I know I realise the importance of recognising and attending to symptoms earlier.”
Systems to support
Janine said nurses particularly face unreasonable expectations to “just push through”.
“They’re attracted to this job because they’re empathetic and caring, so they don’t want to let down their colleagues, and they want to be there for patients,” she explained.
“But if they’re burning out, it’s the workplace environment that can make the difference for them.”
While past research has highlighted burnout and compassion fatigue in nursing specialisations, Janine says her study is one of the first to look at the combined influence of personal and workplace factors across the nursing profession.
“Also, a lot of research just reflects a moment in time – this study will invite participants to reflect on their experiences, emotions and environments again in six months, and track any shift,” she explained.
Participants can also opt to do online interviews after completing both surveys.
Nurses participating in the study can earn a certificate which they can use towards completing a reflection for their Continuous Professional Development, and go in the draw to win a Prezzee Gift Card.
