3rd October 2024
Mental Health: Resilience and Burnout
Dr. Linda Edwards | Chief Executive, Education for Health
NHS staff burnout and the overburden of the increasing numbers of people living longer with multi morbidities and complex health issues are a consistent theme in the media.
So how do people who work in the system continue to be positive and committed to their work? Many of the healthcare professionals that I speak are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed yet also feel guilty about feeling that way. A double psychological bind.
Coping strategies have varying degrees of success as they fail to address the root cause of burnout. This is a big challenge for even the most committed professionals. Some coping strategies are to reduce working hours to cope in a system where caseloads are growing and systems creaking. A recent study from Manchester University found that GP caseloads have increased by 32% since 2015 when considering chronic condition management. At the same time working hours have reduced by 2.7%. Another perfect storm!
So how can people build their resilience and reduce burnout? Developing self-awareness is fundamentally important as it enables us to identify the triggers and take remedial action before the stress and potential burnout take hold. Over my many years of working in the NHS, a constant theme has been clinicians putting their own health and wellbeing aside to focus on supporting others. While well intended this strategy cannot work in the long term; there comes a point when it there is nothing left to give and burnout hits.
Developing self-awareness enables us to stop, take a breath begin to see things from a wider perspective. In turn it increases our self-esteem and self-control, supports our wellbeing and leads to better decision making and communication. Sounds simple? Yes, it is, but few people find they can take that step until they are forced to do so by burnout.
I have spent a lot of my working life coaching people to take control back for their lives and how they feel. Building self-awareness is the first step in taking that control back.
Creating space in their days to take stock and reflect away from the distractions of everyday life. Sounds simple, but most people find it difficult to create even 5 mins a day to just sit quietly alone and allow the stress of the day to fall away.
Resilience is another word that is bandied about. So what is meant by resilience? How do people acquire it? And how can it be developed? Very simply, resilience is the ability to bounce back after a set back by developing the ability to view the stressful situation, challenges, or problems through a different lens.
How do we train ourselves to see through a different lens? There are two distinct ways of doing this. The first is to imagine you are looking at the situation from someone else’s perspective or from a different angle. How does that change the situation and how you feel about it? A simple way to do this is to imagine that you are looking at the situation as if you were a fly on the wall. Doing so helps create an entirely new perspective and removes the emotion form the situation. The second is to look at the lessons learned from this situation and ask ourselves what is the purpose of this happening? Both approaches enable us to dissociate from the situation which in turn helps reduce the stress.
The best piece of advice I received years ago which has stuck with me ever since is to be kind to myself. To me this means taking a few minutes at the end of a busy stressful day to decompress which allows me to sleep better and refresh my energy.
I would love to hear your coping strategies or respond to any queries about this blog. My contact details are ledwards@educaitonforhealth.org