Finding solutions for burnout among nurses of color

After the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, J. Margo Brooks Carthon, Tyson Family Endowed Term Chair for Gerontological Research in the School of Nursing, worked on a research study interviewing Black nurse practitioners in the greater Philadelphia area about their efforts to address inequities in care.

She and study co-author Jacqueline Nikpour, postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at Penn Nursing, spoke about their findings and in particular, issues impacting nurses of color by bringing nursing researchers and practitioners to the Solutions to Health Inequities & Nurses’ Emotional Exhaustion (SHINE) Invitational.

Brooks Carthon said the nurse practitioners (NPs) she spoke to for the study had expressed deep emotional exhaustion, often the result of the uncompensated labor of championing health equity and fighting for organizational change, along with experiences of racism and microaggressions. Yet in ongoing discussions about the burnout crisis in nursing, she said it’s uncommon to hear about the disproportionate burden on nurses of color. 

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“If we’re going to develop solutions, we need to center their experiences,” Brooks Carthon said. “The reason this is called SHINE is because we wanted to shine a light on the fact that, yes, burnout is at crisis levels, but the disproportionate weight of the burnout crisis is falling on the shoulders of nurses of color, and we need to do something about it. We are the solution we’ve been waiting for.”

The one-day conference brought about 40 attendees not only from Penn and other Philadelphia universities, but also people from New York, Maryland, California, Texas, and elsewhere in the country. The attendees included half of the 16 NPS interviewed for the study.

Charlotte Thomas-Hawkins, associate dean at the Rutgers University School of Nursing and a recipient of two nursing degrees from Penn, shared findings from a study she led, “Effects of Race, Workplace Racism, and COVID Worry on the Emotional Well-Being of Hospital-Based Nurses: A Dual Pandemic.” That study found that nonwhite nurses reported higher emotional distress, more racial microaggressions, and more negative views about the racial climate at their workplace.

Penn Nursing Dean Antonia M. Villarruel addressed the topic in remarks following the presentation, noting that these inequities have an effect. “It’s exhausting; it takes a toll,” she said. But she said those gathered have an opportunity to identify what needs to happen in work environments to support nurses of color.

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“I am hopeful because we are here with a common cause, we’re leaders, we’re accomplished, we’re respected in our profession, and we have an equity passion,” Villarruel said. In introductions, attendees shared some of their specific equity passions: maternal outcomes, disparities among LGBTQ+ populations, diabetes, immigrant nurses in long-term care, and Black women experiencing violence in their communities.

The invitational also included small group discussions about experiences with burnout and emotional exhaustion, addressing health disparities, barriers to advancing health equity, policies that could address health equity, and factors contributing to burnout; the presentation of findings from the American Nurses Association’s National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing; and the setting of priority areas for research.

For Brooks Carthon, part of the goal of the gathering was the opportunity to connect nurses who share equity passions. She said she also wanted attendees to be aware of funding opportunities, such as a Notice of Special Interest from the National Institute of Nursing Research seeking research studies to prevent and mitigate nurse burnout and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ announcement of grants to support nursing work environments and health equity.

“We can start the conversation here,” Brooks Carthon said, “and we think the real magic is going to happen because we’re fostering these connections.”