Promoting Wellness and Preventing Burnout Through Communication and Collaboration

Project Topic:

Wellness promotion and burnout prevention through skilled communication and true collaboration

Hospital, City and State:

Children’s Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska

Unit:

• Home Health and Private Duty Nursing

CSI Participants:

• Jenna Barnett, ADN, RN
• Caryl Bodammer, BSN, RN, LMT
• Mary Herrington, BSN, RN, CPN, CPEN

Project Goals/Objectives:

1. Improve overall Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT) Skilled Communication score for both PDN and HH teams by 0.1
2. Decrease Oldenberg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) score out of the “at risk” range
3. Increase staff participation to 80% of staff, e.g. completing tasks suggested monthly, responding in the online platform, or acknowledging receipts in upcoming emails
4. Decrease 25% the number of staff who responded they have “become more callous toward patients/coworkers” in the upcoming 2026 Employee engagement survey

Project Outcomes:

1. Increased HWEAT Skilled Communication 0.27 (HHN) and 0.08 (PDN)
2. HHN’s OLBI score showed a decrease in exhaustion by 4.53 and an increase in disengagement 0.1. PDN’s OLBI score showed a decrease in exhaustion by 0.35 and an increase in disengagement of 1.8
3. Participation in monthly activities varied (10-80%)
4. Employee engagement survey results will be measured with annual survey

Project Overview:

In 2025 it was noted that PDN and HH departments both scored lowest in similar areas of HWEAT survey results; skilled communication and true collaboration. Another correlation noted was the Oldenburg survey, which measures burnout. Both departments had an ending score of “at risk.”

A creative effort was made, in an attempt to address these areas by implementing a project engaging staff monthly with topics related to burnout prevention, management, health and well-being. Creativity was needed due to the nature of these departments being outside of the hospital, and burnout was showing up more covertly than just staff turnover.

The program titled “Let’s Taco ‘Bout Burnout,” was a 10-month taco themed project with a new topic and resource discussed every month and themed to match a different taco ingredient, in efforts to make it more fun to engage. A big focus was placed on bridging staff to the resources offered at Children’s because there are many and it can be confusing to navigate.

This was specifically designed in hopes to address all areas of improvement at once. Our goal was to build team building and connection by creating an online platform for staff to share their experiences with burnout and how they manage, which would hopefully lead to better cultivation of communication and collaboration.

Supervisors shared three anonymous case studies from staff who reported benefiting greatly by this specific project connecting them to resources they needed that they didn’t know they had available at their fingertips beforehand. Two of these nursing staff members were on the verge of leaving nursing but stayed after feeling supported in this way. Supervisors are strongly considering continuing the project or something similar in promoting wellness and preventing burnout among nursing staff. The project might merge with another existing program at Children’s Nebraska, or new recruits might be brought in to help expand it with new ideas. Supervisors are inspired to take this burnout prevention concept forward by keeping the new “burnout/resource station” as part of the skills checks completed routinely in PDN and HH.