ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
When personal resources may not be enough: burnout, psychological capital, and empathy among pediatric nurses in a Chinese tertiary hospital - an explanatory sequential mixed methods study.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Aims: Healing workplaces require evidence on how personal resources are experienced under demanding clinical conditions and what forms of support nurses perceive as useful. This study examined burnout, psychological capital, and empathy among pediatric nurses in a Chinese tertiary hospital and used qualitative findings from nurses with extreme burnout profiles to clarify burnout-related support and training needs. Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used. In the quantitative phase, 218 pediatric nurses completed an online survey including the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey, the Chinese Revised Nurses' Psychological Capital Scale, and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals. In the qualitative phase, 11 nurses with extreme burnout profiles participated in one 120-min focus group. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, unadjusted Pearson correlations, and 95% confidence intervals. Qualitative data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and integrated with quantitative findings through a joint display. Results: Reduced personal accomplishment was the most prevalent burnout dimension (54.6%), whereas emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were low in most participants (75.0% and 84.0%, respectively). Psychological capital was low in 76.0% of nurses and was not significantly correlated with any burnout dimension. Empathy was high in 62.0% of participants and was positively correlated with personal accomplishment ( Conclusion: Pediatric nurses showed a burnout profile dominated by diminished personal accomplishment. The non-significant psychological capital-burnout associations suggest that personal resources alone may not fully explain burnout patterns in this single-center context. Burnout support in high-acuity pediatric settings may need to combine psychological support with career-development pathways, team learning, and reflective practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.