How to deal with nurse burnout

It can happen in any profession, but burnout is an all too common complaint in nurses who have highly stressful jobs, are committed to bringing expert care to their patients and who have empathy for their patients. Nurses who work in high stress specialties like oncology, emergency rooms, burn units and intensive care units sometimes find that coping with the day-to-day pressures of dealing with the sickest of patients is exhausting and mentally fatiguing.

Burnout prevention workshops

According to Kathy McGregor, R.N., whose company gives “burnout prevention” workshops for nurses, the most important rule to remember to fight burnout is to take care of oneself. “Remember to breathe,” she says, as she tells her clients about her personal experience with the overwhelming feelings that accompany burnout.

She experienced such unbearable sadness and anxiety due to her position as an AIDS hospice nurse because she no longer felt that she could do her job. “I kept telling my manager, ‘I am not OK,’ and crying all the time. They kept saying, ‘Hang in there. You are a great nurse.’”

According to McGregor, praise may not help the stressed-out nurse but rather contribute to burnout. If a nurse is feeling severe burnout and needs to take time off, praise may keep the nurse bound to the job that has become too stressful to tolerate.

“If you are going to work any place where there is a high burnout rate — oncology, neonatal, ICUs, hospices — the manager needs to tattoo the number of the employee-assistance program on the nurse’s forehead,” McGregor says.

Onsite counseling

Many stressed-out nurses have found help and support from onsite counseling programs. For example, nurses and other health-care professionals at UCLA Medical Center are encouraged to attend a weekly or monthly counseling session named Teas for the Soul. The most popular session is called The Tension Tamer. A chaplain attends so health-care workers can talk about the stresses they face on the job, while the aroma of herbal teas wafts through the air and soothing music plays in the background.

By providing an hour of off-time to speak with other health-care workers or counselors, the nurse may find balance between the demands of the job and her own emotional and physical exhaustion. Peer support helps nurses realize that they are not alone in their feelings and gives them an opportunity to discuss methods of keeping burnout at bay. Nurses who once skipped lunch to attempt to handle huge workloads are finding that a small respite from patients and problems helps them feel renewed and re-energized.

Offsite counseling

All counseling can help a nurse deal with the stresses and issues that come from tending to sick and injured people each day. However, “nurse focused, integrated transpersonal counseling” works to help a nurse review the answers for the original question: Why would someone would want to spend her life healing others? Once a nurse confirms why she chose nursing as a career, it’s often easier to feel able to move forward with new insights on how to create healthy boundaries between the nurse and the patient and to once again enjoy one’s profession.

Tips to fight burnout

Many nurses today simply are overworked. They endure heavy workloads, extended hours or double shifts and find themselves worn out at the end of the day and still tired the next morning.

Fatigue alone can make one feel overwhelmed and depressed, so getting a good night’s sleep is important for physical and mental well-being. Eating healthy foods that will keep one’s energy up without adding on extra pounds can help the nurse stay physically strong.

Some nurses report that physical exercise, hiking, tennis or just jogging around the block helps them to clear their heads of work issues and stress and makes them feel better.

The article How do I deal with burnout? offers the following three ideas for combating nurse burnout:

• Set realistic goals. You’re not going to be able to provide perfect care every shift, so let go of that idea right now. Aim for “pretty good” instead.
• Ask for help. Going it alone doesn’t make you a hero; it just exhausts you. Delegate everything you can, and ask your peers for help when necessary. Return the favor when you’re feeling stronger.
• Learn to say no. You don’t have to be on the infection control team, unit council, school board and library steering committee. Cut back without guilt.