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Burnout is twice as prevalent across workers in the healthcare industry than any other profession. And, the risk of suicide nearly doubles if you are a medical professional.
If you’re having suicidal thoughts, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255.
There are a variety of reasons that doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff increasingly experience burnout. With many hospital caregivers working long and frequent 12-hour shifts, demanding hours can cause stress and exhaustion. Physical burnout is also coupled with the emotional and mental burden of caring for patients in their most vulnerable moments. Whether that’s caring for someone who’s experienced a tragic accident or consoling family members who have lost loved ones.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased burnout among hospital caregivers.
Burnout has been an underrecognized problem among hospital caregivers for decades. But the recent public health crisis has catapulted healthcare professionals into a flurry of chaos unlike anything our generations have seen before. Hospitals are seeing record-breaking numbers of patients seriously ill with a virus that has taken too many lives. Doctors and nurses are working around-the-clock to both treat patients medically, and serve as their support system as COVID-19 isolates them from their loved ones. The frequent and repetitive exposure to the virus that healthcare workers face also adds to their stress and burnout.
The weight of bearing witness to such tragedy on a regular basis is enough to leave anyone feeling helpless, overwhelmed, and emotionally spent. Unfortunately, there’s little relief for hospital caregivers who have dedicated their careers to caring for people in their toughest moments. As a result, nearly two-thirds of physicians in the U.S. say the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified feelings of burnout, according to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
What does burnout in hospital caregivers look like?
Burnout is a psychological response to prolonged feelings of stress on the job. Caregivers experiencing burnout may feel a sense of despair when they feel their time, effort, and energy aren’t making a difference.
Burnout manifests itself differently in everyone, but generally includes:
- Emotional exhaustion, or overwhelming feelings that you just can’t do it anymore
- Depersonalization, in which an individual detaches from their job due to feelings of cynicism toward the work
- Reduced personal accomplishment, or believing they are powerless to affect change
How we’re helping our caregivers.
MedStar Health is actively working to ensure our caregivers across all care sites have outlets to deal with the stress of the pandemic. We’ve set up multiple recharge stations across the system so our providers and associates have a space to relax, get a healthy drink or snack, and pick up materials about various ongoing wellness efforts.
In an effort to make sure our caregivers are provided helpful wellness-focused resources, we launched an initiative called “wellness rounds”. During these rounds, our teams discuss various wellness resources that are available. It also gives providers and associates an opportunity to connect and discuss their concerns. These rounds were designed to focus a small part of the day on others’ wellbeing. Over time, this initiative has grown exponentially, and we have recruited large groups of volunteers to assist with the effort. All volunteers go through our peer support training. In fact, we established a 24/7 hotline for peer support to make sure this hub is available anytime someone needs it. For those who prefer a more formal mental health appointment to discuss their needs, we also put in place a mental health appointment program that ensures our associates and providers can speak with a provider within two business days.
In addition to what we’re doing at MedStar Health and what other healthcare groups are doing to support their associates, there are ways patients and loved ones of those who are sick can help reduce caregiver burnout.
