Reducing Burnout and Promoting Professional Development in the Palliative Care Service

Previous research suggests that health care providers working with issues of death and dying may experience increased stress and risk of burnout. Despite previous research on the problem of burnout faced by palliative care providers, there have been few interventions studied to prevent further burnout. Research does support allowing time away from a stressful health care environment to promote wellness and to decrease burnout. This pilot study ensured that each palliative care advanced practice provider received an 8-hour day monthly to work on professional development activities remotely. The Professional Quality of Life Scale was completed before and after the addition of the professional development day to measure satisfaction, burnout, and secondary trauma impact. Qualitative feedback was also collected. Results indicated that this intervention decreased burnout, improved compassion satisfaction, and decreased secondary trauma for this team. Recommendations are to further investigate methods to further reduce burnout for this population of health care providers. Results from this pilot study demonstrate that professional development days should be expanded for those providers who are at a high risk for burnout in the hospital setting.