Open Response Comments
Post-hoc review of open-response comments identified 4 dominant
categories of frustration sources: (1) Time constraints, (2) Lack of
administrator support, (3) Insufficient psychosocial support resources,
and (4) Inadequate staffing and/or turnover. Time constraint comments
reflected perceptions of insufficient time to complete assigned tasks or
feeling generally overwhelmed with expected workload. Lack of
administrator support generally characterized desires for management to
involve staff in policy development, process changes, and to provide
greater support in conflict resolution with families, patients, or
colleagues. Insufficient institutional support for self-care reflected
the need for additional resources to process the emotional toll of
providing care for seriously ill and dying children. Staffing and
turnover frustrations were often described as threats to
department-level culture or morale. See Table 4 for exemplar comments
representing these themes.