For this microlearning activity, we will be talking about burnout in healthcare. The definition of occupational burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress. Symptoms of burnout can include, but are not limited to, feelings of exhaustion or feeling depleted, increased mental distance from one's job, feelings of general negativity related to one's job, and reduced professional efficacy. Healthcare workers are very susceptible to burnout at work given the high level of demands at their job. Even prior to COVID-19, clinician burnout was already high due to continued increasing job demands, but decreasing resources for meeting those demands. There is an ever-growing expectation to do more with less and that can lead to physical, emotional, and psychological stress, including burnout. Burnout can lead to workers quitting a particular job or even leaving the field of medicine completely. This is worrisome given the short staffing of nurses and doctors already being seen throughout this country. In early 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General's Office released an advisory on health worker burnout, announcing that building a thriving health workforce is one of his current top priorities. This 76-page advisory includes information related to the negative consequences from burnout, whether it be to healthcare workers themselves. It highlights numerous possible medical issues, psychological issues, social issues, and challenges, but that can also affect our patients. It might have delays in care and diagnosis or lower quality of care for our patients. It can also have a negative effect on the healthcare system as a whole, especially with workforce shortages and retention challenges. This also affects our communities and society. It leads to an erosion of trust, increased health disparities, and a lack of preparedness for public health crises. The Surgeon General's report lists multiple factors that can contribute to burnout amongst healthcare workers through workplace and learning environment, organizational factors, including excessive workload, excessive work hours, barriers to mental health and substance use care, whether that be for the workers themselves or for our patients. Above that would be the healthcare system. There can be limitations from a state level or from national regulations, poor care coordination, lack of human-centered technology. In addition to that, there are societal and cultural factors that make it difficult sometimes for us to do our jobs, whether that be through health misinformation that spreads like wildfire online, or unrealistic expectations of healthcare workers by society. Throughout the pandemic, health workers have reported high rates of stress, increased levels of frustration, exhaustion, isolation, feeling undervalued, having a continued loss of sleep, increased feelings of anxiety, increased risk for substance use, and suicidal ideation. Mental Health America conducted a survey from June through September in 2020. The survey was offered online on Mental Health America's website. Ninety-three percent of the healthcare workers who took the survey reported feeling stressed. Eighty-six percent reported increased feelings of anxiety. Seventy-six percent reported exhaustion and feelings of burnout. And 41 percent reported feelings of loneliness. Critical care clinician burnout. So Dr. Moll and her colleagues conducted a longitudinal cross-sectional survey, which found that burnout syndrome in critical care clinician staff was already high prior to COVID-19 pandemic. When they first conducted the survey in 2017, they had about 59 percent of workers reporting symptoms of burnout, and that this number increased when surveyed again in 2020 to 69 percent. The survey is likely under-reporting the numbers, as there was only a 50 percent response rate from the staff that the survey was sent to. The pandemic has emerged as an unprecedented healthcare crisis, placing clinicians under extreme pressure. Critical care clinicians have been shouldering additional psychological and moral burdens. The risk of exposure to the virus, potentially infecting loved ones, coupled with staffing shortages, and increased patient workloads are associated with the highest prevalence of mental burden. Critical care clinicians... So now that we have put a name to it, what can we do to help ourselves and our colleagues? Please know that you are not alone. The burnout rate in healthcare has been steadily increasing even prior to COVID-19. We need to be conscious of finding ways to provide ourselves with different resources for self-care, whether that be talking with our colleagues who understand and know what we're going through, talking with our family or our friends, asking for help, whether that be through a therapist or a group of colleagues, or finding different ways to take care of ourselves. In the ICU, healthcare workers are faced with death and dying on a regular basis. Oftentimes, clinicians are at the bedside with a dying patient if family is not available, especially during the pandemic. Please remember that you are also experiencing a loss. Please remember that you are also experiencing a loss, whether it is a patient that you have cared for for a long time or it is someone you have just met. Detaching yourself or ignoring it won't provide prolonged relief. Your team members can be a good support. They are going through the same things with you, and you are in this together. It can be difficult to mentally leave work at the hospital, so finding ways to keep yourself in a routine when you're not at work and finding ways to be able to disconnect from what you do. Give yourself some grace. It's also okay to not be okay. Constant stress can cause an emotional overload, and you need to treat yourself with the same kindness and compassion as you would a friend who is going through something similar. Symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout can include difficulty sleeping, numbness, anger, inability to focus, sadness, and helplessness. It is important to recognize if and when your job is becoming too much to handle. Pushing through it isn't sustainable long-term. So, in order to utilize some available resources, it's helpful to know them. The Well-Being Resource Toolkit is available through SCCM Online. They cover many different areas such as work-life balance, workload and job demands, as well as social support and community at work. Mental Health America is a website full of resources for healthcare workers dealing with burnout and emotional stress. You can also get screened for mental health concerns. The Emotional PPE Project has a listing of mental health professionals to connect healthcare workers in need of help. The Therapy Aid Coalition is another listing of free or low-cost mental health providers for healthcare workers. It's also a good idea to try to take a break if you can, whether that be through working out, doing some yoga, finding an app to do some meditation, or if possible, even taking a break and going on vacation. If you are a healthcare worker and are concerned about your mental health, please go to mhanational.org to be screened and find resources and support. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please call or text to reach a trained crisis counselor 24-7.

occupational burnout

healthcare

COVID-19 pandemic

chronic work-related stress

staffing shortages