HealthCareBusiness News: Investing in pediatric clinician wellbeing. Addressing burnout to build healthier hospitals
By Dr. Angela Myers
Across the United States, pediatric health care faces a critical challenge: a growing shortage of clinicians is meeting rising levels of burnout. Fewer medical graduates choose pediatrics — citing long hours and lower compensation compared to other specialties — and national surveys show pediatricians and pediatric nurses experience higher rates of burnout than many adult-care peers. The National Academy of Medicine calls clinician burnout a public health crisis with real implications for workforce retention, patient safety and care quality. With the lives of children at hand, hospitals cannot afford to ignore the workplace environment and their staff’s mental wellbeing.
While the symptoms of burnout — emotional exhaustion, detachment, a loss of sense of accomplishment — are well documented, the underlying causes often run deeper than any one individual’s experience. Pediatric clinicians bear the weight of caring for sick children and their families, often in high-stress environments where the stakes could not be higher. The emotional intensity of these interactions, coupled with administrative burdens and systemic pressures, leaves many clinicians at risk of leaving the field altogether.
The impacts of this crisis ripple throughout entire health systems. When clinicians leave, hospitals face increased costs, instability in care teams and challenges maintaining high standards of care. Children and families lose access to trusted clinicians, and those remaining must shoulder even more responsibility, further compounding the strain.
Health care leaders increasingly recognize that piecemeal solutions — like pizza parties or sporadic wellness days — do little to address the roots of the crisis. The most forward-thinking organizations are building comprehensive, data-driven strategies that embed wellbeing into the very fabric of hospital culture and operations. These strategies prioritize the mental, emotional and physical health of their workforce not as an afterthought, but as a prerequisite for delivering high-quality patient care.
As chief wellbeing officer at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, I have seen firsthand how a holistic approach to wellbeing can transform the environment for pediatric clinicians. In pediatrics, the emotional demands are constant, and supporting clinicians requires a holistic approach, not just a single program or resource.
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