DiversityNursing Blog

Nurse burnout is not a new concept. Nurses have been experiencing burnout for decades. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, more Nurses than ever are experiencing burnout, making it a hot topic in the Nursing community. Nurse burnout is often brought on by everyday stressors like insufficient staffing, increased workload, high patient acuity, and even verbal or physical abuse from patients. These stressors result in physical, mental, and emotional fatigue. As a result, Nurse burnout has been a significant factor in the number of Nurses leaving bedside Nursing or even the profession altogether.

Identifying the symptoms of Nurse burnout is the first step in preventing it from progressing. Nursing burnout is not one size fits all, and there can be many different ways it manifests itself. Nurses can experience various symptoms, including fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, anxiety, loss of desire to go to work, feeling underappreciated, overworked, or unsupported, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, and may even isolate themselves or withdraw from activities.

With an emotionally demanding and stressful job, it can be normal to experience some ill feelings toward your job from time to time. However, when the ill feelings begin to linger for weeks or start to affect your personal life or how you feel toward your job, it may be time to take some time for yourself and implement some of these strategies to reduce the risk of becoming burnt out.

Develop Strong Relationships with Coworkers

Nurses work in stressful situations but having a good support system with those you work with can help lighten the load and decrease the risk of experiencing burnout. This is because Nurses in positive environments feel more supported by the people around them. Having good support from Nurse friends can reduce stress levels and the emotional exhaustion you may encounter in the clinical setting.

Prioritize Physical and Mental Health

A great way to prevent Nursing burnout is to prioritize your physical and mental health. Nurses cannot pour from an empty cup. Practicing yoga, meditation, or journaling are all excellent ways to relieve stress and work through frustrations or concerns. Nurses should also try their best to eat well, drink plenty of water, get adequate sleep and participate in physical exercise several times per week.

Set Boundaries

Setting boundaries is essential to prevent burnout. Nurses often work long shifts with varying schedules, which can be challenging to navigate for some Nurses as they work opposite shifts than friends and family. Although working extra hours can benefit your wallet, it may have different personal benefits. Taking the time to disconnect from work stressors and spend time with loved ones is essential for a work-life balance. Sometimes it's better to leave work at work and avoid work-related conversations while on your time off.

Find Support with Loved Ones

The Nursing profession can come with a heavy mental load contributing to burnout. Finding support from family and friends is essential. If you experience trauma in your workplace, sometimes talking to a therapist or counselor can help with coping strategies and processing your feelings. 

Find a Creative Outlet

Having a creative outlet can help release endorphins that can help to prevent Nurse burnout. Research has shown that Nurses with creative endeavors have enhanced mood, more energy, stronger immune systems, and lower stress. Some Nurses enjoy activities like crocheting or knitting, painting, or pottery. So if you have been looking for a way to decrease work stress, now might be a perfect time to learn a new skill and pick up a new hobby.

Consider Advancing Your Career

If all else fails and you continue to experience symptoms of Nurse burnout from chronic job stress, consider going back to school to advance your Nursing career. By advancing your Nursing career, you can become a Nurse leader, Nurse Educator, or a Nurse Practitioner. These career paths can provide autonomy, a change of pace, and remove you from your current clinical environment. Advancing your career also gives you a unique advantage to change how we practice Nursing and help prevent Nursing burnout for future generations of Nurses.

It takes a team effort to prevent Nursing burnout. Administration and Nurse leaders must prioritize the well-being of their Nursing staff, and Nurses themselves must strive to care for themselves as well as they care for their patients.

Being a parent and a Nurse are demanding roles and it may seem almost impossible to thrive and manage both at the same time, but it is possible! If you're a parent in the Nursing field consider these tips below. 

Parent Guilt

This feeling of missing out on important moments in your children's lives while away at work can really build up negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. 

Author and Journalist Amy Westervelt has some advice to overcoming this guilt. First, stop beating yourself up over your choices and circumstances. Instead, remember the reasons behind your choices. Every time you think to yourself, “I feel bad about __” replace that with, “I made that decision because ___” and then move forward.

 Amy mentions it's important to remember that guilt is inherently tied to empathy. Feeling guilty means you have compassion, care, and concern for those around you. 

Set Standards Early

You must show up and give it your all at work as well as at home so it's best if you set clear parameters and priorities from the start. Openly talk with Supervisors, Coworkers, and Family about what shifts and commitments you are able to attend.

It's great to help coworkers with an extra shift from time to time but work shouldn't come at the expense of your family. If it's your day off, don't check emails and voicemails, focus solely on enjoying your time with loved ones. 

Connect With Fellow Nurse Parents 

There are plenty of Nurses who have children, it's a good idea to get to know them. They can give you tons of great advice and suggestions to improve your work life balance.

These parents know exactly what you're going through and can offer empathy and support. Just being able to talk to someone who can relate is a stress reliever. 

Declutter Your Days

In a perfect world you'd attend every parent teacher meeting, do car pool, eat pizza after soccer matches, etc. but in reality you can't say yes to everything. Life can become hectic with everyone's different schedules.

So in order to stay on top of everyone's availability, creating a calendar at home and on your phone is a great way to stay organized. You can plan out meals for the week, keep track of extra curricular activities, kid's chores etc. Organization is key to a good work life balance.  

Hired Help

If you can afford to outsource help it can alleviate a lot of stress and free up time to spend with your family. For example, if trips to the grocery store are taking up too much time try getting them delivered. Overwhelmed with house cleaning? Hire someone to come and help clean for a couple hours. You find you don't have the energy to walk your dogs, local dog walkers are always available. 

Don't Forget About You

Balancing family and your career can tire you out physically and mentally. There's the old saying, "You can't pour from an empty glass." So it's important to take care of yourself. 

It's okay to ask friends and family for a helping hand in taking care of the kids so you can have some time to do things for you.

Use that calendar we mentioned above to schedule some self-care or time for the hobbies you enjoy. And if you find yourself with an open time slot, that doesn't necessarily mean you should fill it, leave some space to breathe. 

Give yourself some of the love you are constantly giving to others. You are a wonderful Parent and a terrific Nurse, so keep going - you got this! 

In order for a healthcare system to be successful in having high engagement, job satisfaction and retention, the Nursing workforce should be able to combat the stressors of the job and burnout.

Nurses can better accomplish this by having help from peer support groups and mindfulness programs.

According to a report from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), between 35% and 54% of Nurses and Doctors experience burnout. Among medical students and residents, it is as high as 60%.

Symptoms, the NAM report said, include emotional exhaustion, cynicism, loss of enthusiasm and joy in their work and increasing detachment from their patients and the patients’ ailments. The problem has been linked to higher rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide.

Many institutions are implementing stress management and self-care programs to provide caregivers with easy-to-use tools and resources to build their resilience and help them cope.

The Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi implemented a new mindfulness program known as the ‘Compassionate Intension Program.’ The sessions introduce caregivers to mindfulness as a wellness tool they can utilize in both their workplace and personal lives. Currently, there are three sessions in place:

• In Tune Tuesdays: Held biweekly, ‘In Tune Tuesdays’ are 20-minute classes designed to further educate attendees on mindfulness and how to improve mindfulness in their work environment. The classes are held at three different times to accommodate caregiver schedules.
• Mindfulness Rounding: Also a biweekly activity, ‘Mindfulness Rounding’ features a team of mindfulness experts who visit clinical units. The experts conduct learning huddles and one-on-one conversations with caregivers, sharing quick tips. Their pocket cards or guides offer information on easy-to-implement mindfulness techniques.
• Introduction to Mindfulness Workshop: This 8-week workshop, featuring 1-hour weekly sessions, was developed around the evidence-based standards of mindfulness experts, including, Jon Kabit-Zinn, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Center for Mindfulness, and Richard Davidson, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Healthy Minds and Oxford University’s Mindfulness Center. It offers a deeper dive into various mindfulness techniques.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Pediatric Nurse, Cheryl Connors, RN, MS, created a peer program to provide immediate support for health providers affected by stressful cases.

The Resilience in Stressful Events (RISE) program was developed with a Pediatric Chaplain, a Patient Safety Director, a Doctoral Student, and General Internist Albert Wu, MD, FACP.

According to the American College of Physicians, the RISE program provides a team of 39 peer responders who volunteer their time to support those who call the service. RISE team members include Nurses, Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Respiratory Therapists, Pastoral Caregivers, and Social Workers. They undergo didactic, video-based, and role-playing training.

The team has been called by more than 700 Johns Hopkins employees. The hospital previously had a program offering free professional counseling but, Ms. Connors said, “They actually prefer somebody who knows what they're going through—another health caregiver who can relate—and when they need it, not a week later.”

As supporters of patients and their families, Nurses deal with a lot of stress. Health systems can help their Nurses by surrounding them with support and offering them the tools to overcome and cope with stress so they can provide the best care for their patients and for themselves.