Expressions of Compassion Fatigue by Emergency Department Nurses Caring for Patients With Opioid and Substance Use Disorders.

INTRODUCTION: The misuse of and addiction to opioids are a national public health crisis. The complexity of delivering patient care in emergency departments exposes nurses to stressful work situations with complex patient loads and increasing levels of compassion fatigue. Emergency nurses were asked about their feelings of compassion fatigue while caring for patients with opioid use and/or substance use disorders. METHODS: Twenty-four focus groups with emergency nurses (N = 53) at a level I trauma center were conducted in late 2019 and early 2020 are used in this qualitative study using thematic analysis that identified 1 main theme of compassion fatigue with 3 subthemes (nurse frustration with addicted patients, emotional responses, and job satisfaction). RESULTS: Findings highlight that emergency nurses working with patients with opioid use and/or substance use disorders are dealing with a number of negative emotional stressors and frustrations, which in turn has increased their levels of compassion fatigue. These nurses repeatedly expressed feelings of increasing frustration with addicted patients, negative emotional responses, and decreasing levels of job satisfaction as components of their compassion fatigue. DISCUSSION: These emergency nurses identified 3 areas to improve their compassion: improved management support with encouragement across all work shifts, debriefing opportunities, and more education. Fostering a high level of self-awareness and understanding of how the work environment influences personal well-being are necessary strategies to avoid the frustrations and negative emotional responses associated with compassion fatigue.

Randomized clinical trial of parental psychosocial stress management to improve asthma outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: Because higher parental psychosocial stress is associated with worsened asthma outcomes in children, we sought to determine if a parent-focused stress management intervention would improve outcomes among their at-risk African American children. METHODS: We enrolled self-identified African American parent-child dyads (children aged 4-12 years old with persistent asthma, no co-morbidities, on Medicaid) in a prospective, single-blind, randomized clinical trial with follow-up at 3, 6, and 12 months. All children received care based on the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health. Developed with extensive local stakeholder engagement, the intervention consisted of four individual sessions with a community wellness coach (delivered over 3 months) supplemented with weekly text messaging and twice monthly group sessions (both delivered for 6 months). The main outcome was asthma symptom-free days in the prior 14 days by repeated measures at 3 and 6 months follow-up. RESULTS: We randomized 217 parent-child dyads and followed 196 (90.3%) for 12 months. Coaches completed 338/428 (79%) of all individual sessions. Symptom-free days increased significantly from baseline in both groups at 3, 6, and 12 months, but there were no significant differences between groups over the first 6 months. At 12 months, the intervention group sustained a significantly greater increase in symptom-free days from baseline [adjusted difference = 0.92 days, 95% confidence interval (0.04, 1.8)]. CONCLUSION: The intervention did not achieve its primary outcome. The efficacy of providing psychosocial stress management training to parents of at-risk African American children with persistent asthma in order to improve the children's outcomes may be limited. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV: NCT02374138.

Barriers and Facilitators to Asthma Care After Hospitalization as Reported by Caregivers, Health Providers, and School Nurses.

OBJECTIVES: To develop a comprehensive understanding of the barriers and/or facilitators for asthma management for the health professionals and caregivers of children with >1 hospitalization. METHODS: Individual interviews were conducted with family caregivers and health professionals. Focus groups were conducted with school nurses. The interview and focus group guide were used to probe for barriers and facilitators of asthma management. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded by using qualitative software. Themes were identified by using content analysis in the interviews and descriptive qualitative analysis in the focus groups. RESULTS: Caregivers (n = 10), asthma educators (n = 4), physicians (n = 4), and a payer (n = 1) were individually interviewed. School nurses were interviewed via a focus group (n = 10). Children had a median age of 7 years, mean length of stay of 1.9 days, and 56% had a previous hospitalization in the previous 12 months. The "gaps in asthma knowledge" theme (which includes an inadequate understanding of asthma chronicity, activity restrictions, and management with controller medications) emerged as a theme for both caregivers and health professionals but with different health beliefs. School nurses reinforced the difficulty they have in managing children who have asthma in schools, and they identified using the asthma action plan as a facilitator. CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers and health professionals have different health beliefs about asthma knowledge, which raises challenges in the care of a child who has asthma. In addition, school nurses highlight specific barriers that are focused on medication use in schools. A comprehensive understanding of the barriers and facilitators of asthma management that families experience after hospital discharge is crucial to design better efforts to support families.

Wellness coaches in intervention delivery: pediatric asthma as an example.

Asthma is the most common chronic illness among children, and parental psychosocial stress is a well-documented mediator of poor pediatric asthma outcomes. However, few interventions have targeted parental stress as a means for improving child asthma outcomes. The purpose of the study is to describe the feasibility and acceptability of the use of wellness coaches in a parent-focused stress management intervention in pediatric asthma. Data on the feasibility of wellness coach recruitment and training, intervention delivery and fidelity, and acceptability are provided from a randomized controlled trial intervention group sample of 107 African American parents of children aged 4-12 years (M = 6.6 years) with persistent asthma. Implementation of intervention strategies is described. Two wellness coaches were recruited and trained, and they conducted the four-session intervention for the study. The majority (79%) of possible intervention sessions were completed. The fidelity ratings of coach implementation of the intervention were high and indicated that 92%-95% of target intervention content was covered during the sessions. Participants reported high acceptability of working with the wellness coaches. Use of wellness coaches in a parent-focused stress management pediatric asthma intervention was feasible and acceptable. Using wellness coaches for parent interventions may be applicable across other pediatric conditions and has the potential to change clinical practice.

Using stakeholder engagement to develop a patient-centered pediatric asthma intervention.

Stakeholder engagement has the potential to develop research interventions that are responsive to patient and provider preferences. This approach contrasts with traditional models of clinical research in which researchers determine the study's design. This article describes the effect of stakeholder engagement on the design of a randomized trial of an intervention designed to improve child asthma outcomes by reducing parental stress. The study team developed and implemented a stakeholder engagement process that provided iterative feedback regarding the study design, patient-centered outcomes, and intervention. Stakeholder engagement incorporated the perspectives of parents of children with asthma; local providers of community-based medical, legal, and social services; and national experts in asthma research methodology and implementation. Through a year-long process of multidimensional stakeholder engagement, the research team successfully refined and implemented a patient-centered study protocol. Key stakeholder contributions included selection of patient-centered outcome measures, refinement of intervention content and format, and language framing the study in a culturally appropriate manner. Stakeholder engagement was a useful framework for developing an intervention that was acceptable and relevant to our target population. This approach might have unique benefits in underserved populations, leading to sustainable improvement in health outcomes and reduced disparities.