Suzanne Mukherjee

Burnout, psychiatric morbidity, and work-related sources of stress in paediatric oncology staff: a review of the literature

Objective: A growing body of research suggests that staff working in adult oncology services are at risk of burnout and psychiatric morbidity, but whether or not these findings can be generalised to staff working in paediatric oncology is questionable. This paper reports the findings of a comprehensive review of the literature on burnout, psychiatric morbidity, and sources of work‐related stress in paediatric oncology staff.

Work-related stress and reward: an Australian study of multidisciplinary pediatric oncology healthcare providers.

Managing staff stress and preventing long‐term burnout in oncology staff are highly important for both staff and patient well‐being. Research addressing work‐related stress in adult oncology is well documented; however, less is known about this topic in the pediatric context. This study examined sources of work‐related stress and reward specific to multidisciplinary staff working in pediatric oncology in Australia.

Care closer to home for children and young people who are ill: developing and testing a model of service delivery and organization

AIMS To report findings of a national survey of care closer to home services for children and young people and a typology based on these findings. BACKGROUND Providing care closer to home for children is a policy and practice aspiration internationally. While the main model of such services is childrens community nursing, other models have also developed. Past research has proposed a relatively static typology of services, determined by where they are based, whether they are generic or specialist and whether they provide short- or longer-term input. As services develop, however, this typology needs further elaboration. METHODS A two-stage national survey of all primary care and hospital trusts in England, in mid-2008. RESULTS In all, 67% of trusts responded to the screening questionnaire and 75% of relevant services to the main stage questionnaire. Thirteen distinct types of services were identified initially. Cluster analysis of delivery and organization characteristics then identified a three-model typology: hospital-based, condition-specific services (36%); childrens community nurses and other community services (45%) and other (mainly therapy-based) services (19%). The models differed in staffing, costs, functions, type of care provided and geographical coverage. Only a third of nurses in teams were paediatric-trained. CONCLUSION Care closer to home services are an established part of care for children and young people who are ill. They deal with complex and technical care and can prevent or reduce the length of acute hospital admission. Lack of readily available information about caseloads, case mix and costs may hamper their further development.