There are many signs that your job may be causing you to experience burnout.
Unlike depression, which can take time to recognize, burnout often comes on suddenly and without warning.
It’s easy to ignore these warning signs, but the consequences of ignoring them are far-reaching.
If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s time for an evaluation with your healthcare provider so they can help you get through this difficult period and get back on track.
When Does Burnout Become a Problem?
It is important for nurses not to work too hard or become stressed beyond their limits. Working a full schedule for several months may cause you to experience symptoms of burnout.
If your mental health concerns become severe and interfere with your ability to work and care for yourself, you may be suffering from a major depressive disorder.
Burnout is more common in career fields like nursing, where the nature of the work is inherently stressful.
The elements that can lead to burnout include:
- Work stressors – Feeling like you are not getting enough sleep, feeling pressure from your supervisor, or feeling underpaid or unappreciated by your employer.
- Interpersonal stressors – Not getting along with co-workers or feeling like they treat you unfairly. Fueling these feelings of stress with unhealthy behaviors.
- Career stressors – Feeling overwhelmed with too much to do, doing most tasks poorly, and feeling like you are not making positive contributions.
- Personal stressors – Stress from personal life, such as a home life that is in disarray or a spouse or partner whose behavior or mental health problems are interfering with your ability to function as an adult.
These stressors come in all varieties: job-related, interpersonal, and emotional.
The Best Ways to Avoid Burnout as a Nurse
As they say in the medical profession, prevention is the best cure, and preventing burnout is definitely better than having to treat burnout after it’s happened.
With that in mind, here are a few ways nurses can avoid burning out and getting too stressed within their role:
1. Invest Yourself in the Team
Working as a team is one of the best things about working in healthcare.
When you work in a team, you are accountable for certain tasks, goals, and responsibilities.
With the help of the entire team, everyone gets through their day and their week their way. Each person does what they are good at to help bring about success for the greater good of the team, and ultimately everyone is successful.
Having a good leadership team in place will help all nurses, both students and seasoned professionals, to feel safe and well managed.
Students particularly benefit from the wisdom and experience of more experienced nurses who work in roles such as preceptors. These roles can really help to boost confidence and give them someone to talk to when stress hits.
2. Be Positive About Your Day and Your Teammates
When people come to work with a negative attitude, it’s like taking a cold shower on your team’s morale.
Whether you’re a student nurse doing your clinicals or a seasoned nurse working their 40th year in the job, being positive will make a huge difference to both you and your team.
You can help by focusing on what you’re working for, the progress you’re making, and thank your teammates for their good work.
These are all great ways to encourage your team to be positive as well, and they’re all simple things that happen naturally if you’re authentic.
3. Take Time for Yourself Every Day
The best way to stay sane as a nurse is to have healthy boundaries in both your personal and professional life.
When you take time for yourself every day, you give yourself the gift of peace of mind, which will assist you in being a better nurse and a more effective doctor, nurse practitioner, or healthcare provider.
When you’re exhausted or too stressed to focus, your performance is definitely going to suffer.
Taking time for yourself isn’t always easy at the end of a long shift, but if you can find ten minutes of quiet away from your workspace, it will be priceless.
4. Find Ways to De-stress
When you’re stressed out, it’s very easy to forget about taking time for yourself or your wellness.
Whether you find it easy or not to de-stress, make sure that you do so consistently. Setting aside ten minutes each day to unwind and stay positive will help keep burnout at bay.
5. Stay Away from Negativity
Negative people can suck the energy right out of you.
If you are having a bad day, remember that other people’s problems aren’t your issues, so don’t take them on as your own concerns too.
Staying away from people who are negative will help keep you positive and energized.
6. Take Care of Your Body
Nurses work hard, both in their work and in their personal lives.
One of the things that burnout is often caused by is not taking care of your body.
In fact, the only way to have a healthy body is by making sure to work out regularly, eat well and get regular rest because your body needs to restore itself during this time of stress.
7. Take Care of Your Mind
Staying mentally healthy is another key to staying healthy physically.
Listening to music, reading a book, or taking a walk are all great ways to decompress and maintain your mind.
8. Stock Up on Healthy Foods and Beverages to Help You Relax More Easily
Fresh fruits and vegetables are always a good place to start when you’re looking for some things that will help you both physically and mentally.
Fresh fruit is full of vitamins and antioxidants, which are great for your health.
9. Try to Go to a Place Where You Feel Relaxed and Centered
The best way to get your mind off negative thoughts is to get it centered on more positive thoughts.
To do this, find a space where you feel relaxed, whether that be a spa, a meditation room, or a quiet place in nature.
Take the time you would have spent reading or playing with your kids, and instead, go and spend that time relaxing.
10. Take Time to Make Positive Changes in Yourself and Your Life
Be aware of the people around you and how they are treating you in your role within the workplace.
If you feel like your team is getting on your nerves, find a way to help your team get along or find a way to adjust the environment so that it’s a better fit for all of you.
11. Take Time for Yourself to Relax and Do Things That Make You Happy
This might be time with friends, time in nature, time to learn something new, time to do arts and crafts, or things like that.
Your job is tough and stressful at times, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t make yourself happy too and cannot manage stress.
What Are Hospitals Doing About Nurse Burnout?
Hospitals generally recognize the negative effects that burnout can have on staff, and they are able to provide support and counseling for individuals in those specific situations.
This is a great solution, but what about the nurses who receive less support from their employers?
Are there any solutions that are found in other industries that can be applied to nursing specialties in order to prevent burnout?
Many nurses do not get employee benefits such as paid time off for sick time, vacation, personal leave, or birthdays.
While this may be the case with many staff members, it is not a solution to burnout. Even if the individual is able to take those dates off, they still have no way of replenishing their resources.
Even though they take time off and receive support from their employers and fellow staff members, they are still at a complete disadvantage when facing bad situations within their jobs.
Nurses on the Verge of Burnout: How Can You Help Them?
If you want to be an ally to a nurse who is suffering from the early stages of burnout, here are some things that you can do to help:
1. Be a Listener
If you are able to, and this does require you to take a few moments away from your own job, take the time to listen to your co-worker who is feeling overwhelmed.
Taking the time to find out what is going on for them is a huge shift in their life and work routine, and it will be very helpful for them.
2. Let Them Know It’s Not Their Fault
Sometimes stress or burnout begins with people blaming themselves or thinking that they aren’t good enough at their jobs like any other nurse.
3. Let Them Know They Are Not Alone
When a situation has happened, or when a nurse is feeling overwhelmed with the things going on in their life, it can be difficult for them to reach out for help.
So, print off this page and put it on your fridge or leave it on your desk in your locker.
Take a look at it each time you experience one of these symptoms of burnout, and then try some of the tips above to get back to feeling good about yourself and your job as a nurse.
