This pilot study aimed to investigate the effects of a Balint group intervention on job burnout and work stress among nurses in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units (NICU/PICU) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with a control group was employed. The study population consisted of nurses working in the Pediatric and Neonatal ICUs of Besat Hospital in Hamadan, Iran. A total of 20 participants were selected through voluntary sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received eight weekly one-hour Balint group sessions, while the control group received no intervention. Both groups were assessed before and after the intervention using validated measures of burnout and work stress.

Results: ANCOVA results revealed a significant adjusted between-group difference for conflict with nurses (p = 0.005; Holm-adjusted p = 0.033), with the Balint group showing lower stress scores. Nominal differences for other subscales did not remain significant after Holm correction. . Notably, the control group showed a significant increase in stress over time, suggesting that the between-group differences may partly reflect deterioration in the control group rather than absolute improvement in the experimental group.

Conclusion: In this small quasi-experimental study, nurses who participated in Balint groups reported lower work stress post-intervention compared to a control group, and the intervention appeared to exert a protective effect against stress escalation during the pandemic. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution, as the observed differences may be partially attributable to the worsening of stress in the control group over time. The intervention did not significantly affect burnout, indicating the need for longer-term and organizational-level interventions. Further research with larger samples and longer follow-up is needed to confirm these preliminary findings.