As a professional caregiver, you might think that you would know if you were experiencing burnout. But it can sneak up on you—like it did for Caroline Morris, a board-certified geriatric physical therapist in the US.
Morris knew she was stressed. For several years, she had been working as a full-time physical therapist in an inpatient hospital setting. She was also managing weekend staffing and often ended up covering all the shifts that nobody wanted. The hours were long, and she sometimes encountered patients who refused or resented their PT sessions. Her colleagues pressured her to see more patients even when she was already overworked and to get people discharged quickly.
“I was maintaining a full caseload and working all these extra shifts, and I had multiple pressures and demands, and no resources to deal with it,” she says. “I was also working with very sick patients requiring complex care, many of whom were older.” It was a perfect storm for job-related burnout.
Burnout can manifest differently in professional senior care providers than in family caregivers. Here’s how to spot the signs of burnout in yourself, alleviate it, and prevent it moving forward.
Recognizing signs of burnout
Morris’s loved ones expressed concern for her well-being, but she didn’t pay much attention to them as she didn’t think they “got it”. Her co-workers understood the stressors of the job, but they weren’t pulling their weight. She tried to soldier on, unsupported, without realizing that what she was doing was unsustainable.
It’s common for professional caregivers and health care workers to be unaware that they’re experiencing burnout, says Andrea Devoti, executive vice president of an association for home care and hospices. Devoti is a former nurse who also ran a home health agency for 18 years, and she knows how easy it is for caregivers to lose themselves in the work. “Sometimes you get yourself into a situation—or you are put into a situation—where you’re giving your all, giving every bit of energy, knowledge, time, and effort, and you burn out,” she says.
Burnout is a form of chronic stress and exhaustion that manifests differently in each person, Devoti says. Signs of burnout can be physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual, and can include:
- Eating too much or too little.
- Difficulty sleeping.
- Feeling exhausted, frazzled, and/or unmotivated.
- Isolating yourself from your loved ones.
- Turning to alcohol or drugs.
- Physical complaints or health problems.
For Morris, burnout happened so gradually that she barely noticed it—until her body could no longer let her ignore it. “I gained 24 pounds over 3 years, I had a lot of brain fog, my skin was reactive, and I was constantly fatigued,” she recalls. After finally taking some time off, she felt nauseated on her first day back to work and realized that something had to give.
How to cope with caregiver burnout
If you recognize that you’re suffering from burnout, it’s important to take action and address it mentally, physically, and emotionally. Here are some ways to get started:
Take care of yourself physically.
When you’re burnt out, healthy habits tend to slide, Devoti says. It sounds obvious, but simple acts of self-care, such as eating a balanced diet, drinking water, exercising, taking power naps, sleeping enough, and maintaining personal hygiene go a long way, she notes.
Practice stepping away.
If your burnout is caused by your work environment, start allowing yourself to step away for a few moments, rather than letting stress build. “When I’m frustrated or angry and need relief, I’ll go out and take a walk around the block,” Devoti says. If you work in a facility where that’s harder to do, she suggests walking the hallways or courtyard, or sitting in the chapel, even if it’s just to meditate or practice gratitude.
Set healthy boundaries.
A lack of clear boundaries at work can contribute to burnout—especially for professional caregivers who become attached to patients or their families and feel obliged to stay late or go above and beyond, Devoti says.
But “if you don’t put up boundaries, you’ll let this person down anyway, because if you’re not taking care of yourself, you’ll ultimately collapse or get sick,” she says. Consider how many shifts or hours you can realistically tolerate and when you need to be off the clock. Let your colleagues or patients know, then stick to these boundaries.
As Morris assessed her burnout, she realised how much she struggled to say “no” and to ask for and receive help. Knowing that this was an area where she could improve, she started writing “ask for help” and “just say no” in her daily to-do lists as reminders to take care of herself.
Identify who you can lean on.
“You need emotional support in order to be a caregiver,” Devoti says, since the work requires giving others so much of your time, energy, and knowledge. Depending on your profession, you may also have to cope with a significant amount of loss.
Those who work as part of a team can use meetings as an opportunity to ask for support. Independent caregivers don’t have this option and might be tempted to vent to family members, but Devoti encourages them to consider the following strategies instead:
- Finding a friend who also works in caregiving and setting up a standing appointment, for example, a weekly coffee date where you can both unload.
- Joining a local caregiver support group.
- Turning to employee assistance programmes, which often offer free short-term counselling and referrals to other professionals.
- Seeking out a therapist.
Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness involves being observant of the present moment in a non-judgmental way rather than operating on autopilot. Devoti says this awareness is beneficial for caregivers, and it can be as simple as sitting on a park bench for 10 minutes to listen to birds and clear your mind. “It’s really just being consciously mindful, clearing your brain and body, and doing deep breathing for a few minutes so you’re then able to better handle things,” she says.
Morris found it helpful to implement mindfulness by linking it to routines. “When I was seeing patients in the hospital, I always tried to be mindful as I was doing my hand hygiene before walking into the room,” she remembers. “That helped me leave behind what I’d been dealing with immediately before in order to be present for the next patient.”
She also noticed that she was in the habit of treating every task as urgent, so she started making a deliberate effort to slow down. This helped her perceive her environment differently and reduced feelings of burnout.
Consider bigger changes.
If these actions don’t provide sufficient relief, you may need to make more significant changes. Morris recognised that her burnout stemmed from the dual stressors of working in an inpatient setting and coordinating weekend shifts. She switched to an outpatient setting and later swapped the coordinator role for a staff development position, which she found more fulfilling. “That was a much better use of my skills, so that helped quite a bit,” Morris says, observing that working at a job or in a role that doesn’t play to your strengths can contribute to burnout.
More recently, Morris shifted to working part-time at the hospital and is focusing on the staff development position rather than clinical work. She is using the rest of her time to start her own health coaching business.
How to prevent caregiver burnout
If you’re not currently experiencing burnout, try out these tips to keep it at bay:
Normalize taking breaks.
Work breaks shouldn’t be reserved for when you’re stressed and need to cool off; build them into your schedule to let off pressure regularly. For example, Morris started eating her lunch outside, which forced her to take a break and relax in nature.
Build an identity outside of work.
Loss of identity can be a feature of burnout, so avoid letting your work define you completely. One way to do this, according to Devoti, is to seek friends outside of work in order to create more separation between your professional and personal lives.
When Morris hit her breaking point, she attended a week-long retreat that helped her see that her self-worth is linked to who she is rather than what she does . “It was really freeing to realize that, in caregiving, I didn’t have to keep giving more and more to my patients in the hospital through my actions—I could be whole in myself, and that would actually be more helpful to them,” she says.
Establish rituals to cope with stress.
Notice what triggers you emotionally or mentally and how you can counteract that stress before it becomes unmanageable. Morris started taking a walk at the end of each workday as a way of processing the day and taking comfort in nature.
And when she worked in units with high death rates, such as the ICU and oncology, she added a ritual to her routine. “I started lighting a candle for the patients I was worried about or the ones who weren’t surviving,” she says. “Even though I was working as a PT, I still felt really responsible for their outcome, so this ritual externalized it and helped me stop ruminating over their grave prognosis or what I could have done differently.”
Track your health metrics.
As part of her coaching business, Morris is launching a health monitoring programme that makes use of wearable Garmin devices. She has found that tracking health metrics with these devices can reveal that you’re stressed before you’re even aware of it and can even predict illness and flare-ups of chronic conditions.
“People can use their wearable devices to alert them when their body is struggling,” she says. For example, if your average resting heart rate is up, it may be a sign your body is under increased stress, Morris explains.
Know that it’s as crucial to care for yourself as it is to care for others.
Generously providing time, energy, and support to seniors is what caregivers like you do best. But if you run yourself into the ground, you can’t be there for anyone. Bottom line: Taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of your patients or clients.
