Being a healthcare worker is both rewarding and a very challenging role, working in the healthcare industry is not easy and may get stressful. Healthcare workers are prone to burnout, which threatens their well-being and affects their physical and mental health. In the previous article, we talked about Useful Self-Care Recommendations For Nurses.
To get to know more about what burnout is and how to prevent it, continue reading this article.
What Is Burnout?
Burnout is a term used when you are emotionally physically and mentally exhausted from prolonged exposure to workplace stress. It leaves healthcare workers feeling overwhelmed, reduces their motivation, and it leaves them unable to perform their job duties properly.
When the pandemic hit, many employees got the opportunity to work from home while on the other hand, healthcare workers were on the front line, which caused many of them to burn out from workplace stress.
Read More: How To Recognize The Early Signs Of Nurse Burnout
What Causes Burnout?
Complicated patients
Healthcare workers are true heroes they save their patients’ lives every day. They always strive to do their best to help their patients by making them feel comfortable and feel better by treating their medical issues. But some patients may be complicated to deal with and can add more stress to the healthcare worker.
Constantly fast-paced environment
Healthcare workers tend to work around the clock all year, working for long hours in a fast-paced environment and without much sleep is mentally and physically exhausting.
Shortage in the staff
Understaffed makes healthcare workers work even more hours and leaves less time to enjoy themselves with their families and friends which will lead them to more stress and burnout.
Healthcare burnout is considered to be very dangerous because it causes harm to both healthcare professionals and patients, so it is important to know what the main issue that causes burnout and how to prevent it in the future to ensure a better quality of care for patients and ensure the comfort of healthcare professionals.
What Are The Symptoms And Signs Of Burnout In Healthcare Workers?
Healthcare burnout may vary from one worker to another, it is important to identify burnout symptoms so it doesn’t get dismissed as stress and anxiety.
Healthcare burnout can be demonstrated through the worker’s attitudes and actions showing that they don’t want to work anymore, physical and emotional exhaustion, and sleep deprivation.
When identifying burnout lookout for these signs and symptoms of burnout:
Chronic fatigue
Lack of motivation
Sleep-deprived
Poor memory
Chronic Headaches
Low self-esteem
Anxiety
Isolation
Poor performance
Behavioural changes
Procrastination
Muscle pain
Self-doubt
Neglect personal needs
When you spot one or more of these burnout signs and symptoms in a co-worker or yourself you may brush them off as anxiety or as a result of temporary stress, but if these symptoms last more than a week, it is more likely to consider it burnout. You have to pay attention and observe the symptoms and signs and take action to address the burnout before it gets worse.
How To Prevent Healthcare Workers' Burnout?
To prevent and reduce burnout from threatening workers' happiness and productivity, it is important for healthcare organizations and healthcare professionals to recognize burnout and invest in solutions by taking the best approach and making major changes.
Helpful changes that can prevent healthcare workers from burnout are:
Maintain basic self-care
Healthcare workers may get so carried away in their jobs that they forget about themselves and stop caring about their well being.
To change that, you should first start by eating a healthy diet and drinking enough water. Relaxing in a warm bath or shower is a great way to calm yourself down. Good self-care and having time for your wellbeing can decrease the chance of you getting burnt out.
Adopt positive coping strategies
Stress reduction strategies like meditation, yoga, and deep breathing can help minimize stress and prevent burnout.
Reach out to a professional
Professionals can help you process your feelings and what you are dealing with and address your concerns.
Exercise
Getting at least 30 minutes of exercise daily and being physically active has great benefits on your emotional physical and mental health.
Maintain a good sleep routine
Getting enough sleep hours can help with your mental and physical health and helps you stay positive at work.
Reach out to your supervisor
If your workload is becoming overwhelming you can reach out to your supervisor and ask them to decrease your workload.
Interact with family and friends
Interacting with friends and family can reduce emotional exhaustion and reduce the feeling of isolation.
Burnout has become an important issue that most healthcare workers face these days, it can leave a negative impact on your body and mind if symptoms are ignored, so make sure you know how to differentiate between stress and burnout.
We hope this article was informative and educational on helping you understand burnout better. If you’re a healthcare worker searching for a job, but you are not sure where to look for jobs, then this is the right place for you. You can start by signing up with Caring Support, an innovative healthcare employment platform, which can help you get the job you are looking for.
Thanks for reading!
Source: https://www.caringsupport.com/blog/how-to-recognize-the-early-signs-of-burnout