From Burnout to Breakthrough: Reinventing Pediatric Nursing for the Next Generation

Pediatric care is one step away from the crisis. More than half of pediatricians have reported burnout, and nearly half are considering leaving clinical practice altogether within the next five years. Those who keep their faces growing stress – from the increased administrative burden due to lean care teams to outbreaks like measles, and managing complex care for one-third of children with chronic conditions. Millions of homes rely on a worn-out healthcare system at the joints. The question is: Can we do more than just prepare for the impact?

My career has been building the National Healthcare Practice Group – expanding outpatient practices to hundreds of clinics, where thousands of clinicians help millions every day. Not only did I see the crisis happening at work, but I felt stressed at home. More than a year ago, my youngest daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and navigating in care became a full-time focus for my family. Even with special care in the local community, our family found themselves in a maze where everyone evaluated her condition in an island, often without sharing records or communicating coordinated with other clinicians. The burden of the connection point and bridge communication gap falls on us, revealing the dispersion of the system, as well as the exhaustion and confusion of lack of coordination for families and clinicians.

What I learned from my professional and personal experience is that there is no strange cause of pediatric burnout. Instead, it is a network of interconnectedness, compounding and eating with each other. And if we want to really support the pediatricians and children they care about, we need to stop treating the symptoms and start unraveling the root cause.

Track the source of burnout

• Long-term administrative burden: Pediatricians spend too many hours on manual, time-consuming administrative tasks such as electronic health record (EHR) documents, billing paperwork, and navigation insurance requirements. Three-quarters of pediatricians report that EHR files are a significant or moderate burden, often taken home to work to keep working to manage a lot of paperwork – all of which harms the time spent with patients who otherwise could spend with their own family.
• Financial pressure to shrink reimbursement: Pediatric clinicians earn less than experts in almost every other medical field in the United States, and long-term low-paying income shrinks income when jobs increase. For many, the psychological and emotional weight of care is provided to patients only when their patient management practices operate on thin edges. This fact further exacerbates the fact that about half of children in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid and often depends on underfunded programs, depending on further pressure on pediatrician reimbursement.
• Increasing shortage: Due to lack of salary, more resident physicians and other training programs are seeking alternative majors, so the remaining workforce is thin. When clinicians must absorb higher patient volumes, longer waitlists and more urgent consultations without additional support, Skypockets. The NCHWA heralds a continuing shortage that will grow to approximately 13,000 pediatricians by 2037, which points only to further workloads to achieve the remaining practices.
• Lack of coordination throughout the care: Pediatricians often fill the gap in our current fragmented nursing system because of the lack of effective communication between disciplines, increasing unnecessary friction and cognitive overload to enable daily practice. Whether they are pursuing consultation or integrating conflicting opinions, clinicians find that the most common obstacles revolve around communication and coordination splits among experts in patient care. As nursing coordination falters among clinicians, the responsibility falls on the family, who must make sure that information is not missed and take the right next steps, thus putting stress on it.

The profound impact of childhood burnout

Burnout is not only a workplace problem for clinicians, but a slow erosion of happiness. Many pediatric clinicians report feeling down, underestimated and isolated in their work. When a child caring for it is mentally exhausted, it is difficult to develop the empathy, energy and attention required for quality care.

When the pediatrician sprints between dates, he works too thin and caring for him will suffer. Children wait longer to diagnose. The parents didn’t solve the problem. An error occurred. Physician burnout can double the risk of patient safety and pediatrics, i.e. early intervention can shape the entire trajectory of a child – delays or mistakes can have long-term consequences.

Burnout also stems from the growing division of pediatric care. When children’s care involves multiple experts – communication between them is slow or non-existent, it is increasingly necessary for pediatricians to become de facto coordinators. However, even the most intentional care can be disconnected without the time or support to manage this role. The information that families will piece together often must be involved in the coordinator’s shared role, while the pediatrician is under pressure to hold systems together that are not designed to support them.

Solve a stronger future

To truly address pediatric burnout, we need solutions to the root cause problems, which requires rethinking the foundations of care. Reimagining sustainable workloads and creating new incentives to enter pediatrics plays a vital role in building entirely new models – but the intentional integration of technology will really change what is possible. This work begins with reducing administrative burdens and fostering cohesion collaboration across professions and ultimately extending to helping care. For example, AI can be used to summarize a comprehensive history of clinical studies related to patients’ entire lifespan and surfaces, helping to increase clinician preparation and inform them of the latest findings before making an appointment.

If we can go beyond band-aids and provide scalable ways to relieve stress, clinicians across the country can achieve a sustainable work-life balance and reignite their decision to enter the foundation of pediatrics: providing amazing care to improve the quality of life for children.

The bet cannot be higher. As more pediatricians leave the field, the remaining workforce simply cannot continue the path. For next week’s clinic schedule, it’s not just a short-term issue – it’s a health crisis for a generation. When children don’t get the care they need, minor issues can escalate into complex, expensive health issues. Chronic conditions are not managed. Behavioral problems have not been treated. The emergency department becomes the backup. The result is a more expensive, less efficient system – and generations deserve better kids.

During my 15+ healthcare career, I haven’t encountered a group of clinicians who are more task-oriented or selfless than pediatricians. They don’t get into professional money or reputation, but because they like to take care of their children. As a society, it’s time to take care of pediatricians who are making a living to take care of our children.

Photo: Suriyapong Thongsawang, Getty Images

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