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Keeping it Real in Health Professions

By Rob Boirun, Business2Community.com
Special to Online Career Tips

Looking out for the well being of others is the top priority of people in industries devoted to health and healing. But what do many in the health profession get for their efforts? Burnout, stress, and an utter lack of work-life balance.

Whether you work in community health, case management, home care, nursing, or another health profession, you know that taking care of others can be exhausting. In addition to the daily stressors of deadlines, paperwork, and bureaucratic regulations that are part of almost everyone’s jobs, health-care workers carry a few extra burdens. They carry the knowledge that their actions, decisions, and efforts can impact the health—and even the life—of another person. Working with that knowledge alone is stressful enough, but it is often coupled with long hours and an industry-wide expectation to put the patient’s need ahead of one’s own health or well-being.

Caring for Others – Too Much of a Good Thing?

This daily emphasis on the needs of others can be good, in some ways. It fosters the sense of selflessness that motivates a genuine concern for others, much like the altruism that leads to community service or random acts of kindness. It also enables people to focus on the blessings in their lives (there’s nothing like taking a look at other people’s problems to make us grateful for our own!). In some ways, health professions attract people who already care deeply for others and want a career that focuses on making people’s lives better.

Despite the positive impact a selfless career can have on personal development, it also has a downside. Compassion fatigue is common among caregivers of all types. It occurs over time, probably as a combination of workplace stress and caring so much for others. Self-care falls by the wayside; caring for others becomes all-consuming, to the point of harming the caregiver’s ability to perform their duties effectively.

Caring Your Way to Substance Abuse and Depression

As many as 15% of health professionals turn to drug or alcohol abuse to cope with their problems at some point during their careers. Health-care workers and people performing service or personal care jobs are also among the most likely to experience depression. Nurses, for example, are more than twice as likely as the general population to suffer from depression. The high pressure, high stakes environment demands peak performance and often requires workers to confront sensitive or overwhelming issues on a regular basis.

It seems reasonable that health care workers can care their way into these problems. But can they self-care their way out?

Beating Burnout and Finding Balance

Devoting all of one’s time and energy toward helping others is noble, but when it is done at the expense of personal health and an appropriate work-life balance, this noble concept instead becomes dangerous. It can have a negative impact on the mental and physical health of the very people who are responsible for promoting the mental and physical health of others.

  1.  Avoiding burnout and encouraging a healthy work-life balance is increasingly a concern of health-care employers. Acknowledging that these career fields are so emotionally demanding is a great first step for employers and workers alike, but improvement in this area must go beyond recognition.
  2.  Stress management is a critical component of reducing or preventing burnout and depression. Health workers need to take time to understand what contributes to their own stress, unhappiness, or fatigue at work. There are even services where you can get fruit delivery for the office. This has been shown to reduce stress in the office.
  3. Try taking little steps to change negative thought patterns, avoid situations that unnecessarily trigger stress reactions (such as always saying “yes” to work requests), and allow time for self-care without feeling selfish. This can help gradually dispel the hold of an all-consuming selflessness on both personal and career commitments. Caring appropriately for oneself can actually improve health professionals’ ability to care effectively for others.
  4. Also, self-evaluating for symptoms of depression can be a crucial self-care strategy. When any signs of depression are present, self-care can no longer be considered optional—it is essential. Take time to talk to other staff, a supervisor, a loved one, or a therapist about the stressors. Practice mini-meditation sessions. Try to identify what is causing the problem and address it with as much vigor as necessary.
  5. Finally, don’t be afraid to make permanent changes! Building a lifestyle that incorporates regular self-care and balance is essential to maintaining a healthy, satisfying career in health services. Attaining a happy medium as a healthcare worker depends considerably on knowing when—and how—to turn the focus inward instead of outward. By working toward a health career that fosters personal well-being as well as the well-being of others, healthcare professionals can achieve the best of both worlds.

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