Burnout of Healthcare Workers: Causes and Solutions

This essay analyzes the major causes of burnout of healthcare workers along with potential solutions. It covers work stress, high workload, and sleep deprivation. The solutions include meditation, healthy diet, personal care, and more.

Research Skills

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Scope of essay.........................................................................................................................................3
Extend of the problem.............................................................................................................................3
Thesis statement:.....................................................................................................................................3
Main Body:..................................................................................................................................................3
Problem 1- Work stress...........................................................................................................................3
Problem 2-High workload and sleep deprivation.....................................................................................4
Solution 1-...............................................................................................................................................5
Solution 2-...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Scope of essay
Healthcare staff plays an important role in offering the health care services to the
individuals. They are likely to offer the best possible care and treatment so that patients can be
cure promptly. However, they face huge stress while handling patients with different health
conditions. Working with such higher level of stress is not easy and also put impact on the
performance of a healthcare worker. Apart from this, they also face other issues in terms of high
work load, long hours and sleep deprivation and more. These all issues caused burnout of
healthcare workers. However, they work with utmost efficiency to offer the best possible
services to clients. But, sometime they got frustrated by continue work overload, stress and lack
of sleep which might cause sudden burnout (Coplan and et. al., 2018). The present study is based
on burnout of healthcare workers at workplace. Along with the problem, this will also cover
necessary recommendations to handle the situation efficiently.
Extend of the problem
The present study is based on two significant problems such as job stress and over
workload. These both problems are significant and caused burnout of health and social care
workers. With increasing workload on health care staff, it is quite complex to control the issues
related to stress, long hours and more. Due to the adverse health conditions of people, the
problem is increasing day by day.
Thesis statement:
The present report is based on analyzing the major causes of burnout of healthcare
workers along with potential solutions. Here, the causes of burnout of healthcare staff will
discuss in the project. Along with this, potential ways to overcome with such problem will also
be discussed in the following study.

Main Body:
Problem 1- Work stress
Work stress can be understood as the major physical as well as emotional effects when
there is a mismatch between job requirements and resources and needs of workers. It can cause
the issues related to poor mental health. The present scenario is based on the work stress that is
being faced by health & social care workers. It is analyzed that health care workers are likely to
work in challenging conditions. They feel intense stress while taking care of sick people. Apart
from this, they get exposure of death as well as human suffering. They put their best efforts to
provide the best treatment to the patients. Also, there is extreme pressure of maintaining healthy
relationships as well as their family members. While working, they face risk of getting infected
from hazardous disease such as COVID-19 and other such infections (Glazer and Liu, 2017). At
the time of crisis like COVID-19 the work stress enhanced. In the situation, health care workers
are not able to extract time for their personal life which creates a misbalance in personal as well
as professional life of health care workers. Here, the misbalance can cause work stress
significantly. In case of numerous health workers, unstable as well as unpredictable life is the
major reason of work stress. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced additional elements in
terms of strain, stress, loss of control, grief and more. Numerous health workers exposed with the
problem of lack of staff and lack of necessary equipments to deal with the situation. This leads
towards anxiety and the risk of personal harm. While working 24 hours in difficult situation
caused sudden burnout in healthcare setting (Fasbender, Van der Heijden and Grimshaw, 2019).
Problem 2-High workload and sleep deprivation
The second problem is of high workload within the healthcare setting. Healthcare
workers need to work for unpredictable hours. They often work for long hours sometimes even
after the working hours. If a person is unable to take the adequate amount of sleep, it cause
stress, anxiety, frustration and more. As per one of the research conduct by American adults,
nearly 45% of healthcare workers are not able to get adequate amount of sleep. Hence, they are
likely to face the sleep deprivation and anxiety (Dixit and Ghosh, 2019). While working after
hours, it might cause burnout. Almost everyone in healthcare setting used to face the issue of
working long hours. In case of uncertain conditions such as pandemic, the workload of
healthcare workers is enhanced. They need to work day and night to treat the patients. Here, they

need to work in day as well as night shift that disrupt their daily life and caused mental
exhaustion. Mental fatigue enhanced the stress that disrupts the sleep pattern and further it
creates a negative cycle that caused burnout among health care workers. The health care workers
are overworked as they have extensive day to day workload. Their workload is too high that
hardly they can get rest during the entire day especially during the pandemic. The pandemic and
other such events caused ill health of general people (Olsen, Bjaalid and Mikkelsen, 2017). In
this situation, the healthcare workers feel extreme stress of work which further caused burnout.
Solution 1-
The problem is related with job stress that is enhancing due to overwork. It is analyzed
that healthcare workers used to work day and night. They are not able to maintain proper balance
in personal and professional life that further cause stress. To deal with such stress, there is
requirement to do the meditation as it helps in getting mental peace. Apart from this, meditation
is also helpful in improving the concentration so that healthcare workers can concentrate on their
job significantly. Apart from this, there is requirement to follow a healthy diet. The people who
follow healthy diet are likely to feel less stress and anxiety. For this purpose, the healthcare
workers need to minimize their intake of processed food and try to consume whole food like
fruits, vegetables, nuts and more as it provides nourishment to body. This may lead the stress
level down. While handling the patients, doctors often forget to care themselves. In order to
minimize the work stress, there is requirement to go for a walk, exercising daily, preparing a
health meal, stretching before bed and more. As per the previous studies, the person who
performs the self care routine is less likely to feel stressed (O’Connor, Hall and Johnson, 2020).
By following the respective steps, health care workers can easily deal with their work stress
which will also minimize the issues of burnout within healthcare setting.
Solution 2-
The profession of healthcare workers demands long hours working. They need to work in
day as well as night shifts based on the circumstances. During the sudden pandemic, the
workload of healthcare professionals also enhanced. They need to treat the critical patients
without considering their shift timing. This caused sleep deprivation among the healthcare
professionals. To deal with such issue, there is requirement to have necessary policies in the
healthcare organizations where shift timing of each worker needs to be followed strictly. The day

shift workers need to be shift by night shift workers so that each and every one get proper rest.
However, the sudden events such as COVID-19 cannot be predict. During such time, demand of
healthcare workers is enhanced (Ireland and et. al., 2017). In this situation, the hospital
administration needs to arrange rest rooms for their workers where they can rest in free hours. By
this way, they will be present at hospital to attend the patients and also can take rest which is
important for their own health. Apart from this, the healthcare organizations need to make
arrangement for meditation, yoga and daily exercise for better health of their workers.
Additionally, there needs to be arrangement of healthy food so that healthcare professionals get
healthy meal while working. By this way, the workload of healthcare workers can be managed
that will also reduce down the problem of burnout.
Conclusion
From the above-mentioned information, it can be summarized that healthcare workers
work in difficult conditions where they face ample of problems. In the present context, the first
problem has been identified as work stress that might hamper the physical as well as mental
health of healthcare workers. The second problem is related with high workload and sleep
deprivation. It is analyzed that it is possible to deal with such problems through meditation,
having healthy diet, personal care and more. It is suggested that healthcare organizations needs to
structure suitable policies along with having experts to take care of diet of healthcare workers.
Further, healthcare professionals need to perform self care activities so that they can treat
patients appropriately. In context of future, these type of problems might arise as health is
unpredictable. But, there are different ways to manage the stress and workload of healthcare
professionals that will also reduce down the issue of sudden burnout at minimum level.

References
Books and journals
Coplan and et. al., 2018. Burnout, job satisfaction, and stress levels of PAs. Journal of the
American Academy of PAs, 31(9), pp.42-46.
Dixit, V. and Ghosh, S., 2019. Analyze impact of occupational stress in healthcare professionals:
A critical review. Invertis Journal of Management, 11(1), pp.30-37.
Fasbender, U., Van der Heijden, B.I. and Grimshaw, S., 2019. Job satisfaction, job stress and
nurses’ turnover intentions: The moderating roles of on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job
embeddedness. Journal of advanced nursing, 75(2), pp.327-337.
Glazer, S. and Liu, C., 2017. Work, stress, coping, and stress management. In Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of Psychology.
Ireland and et. al., 2017. A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness to reduce stress and
burnout among intern medical practitioners. Medical Teacher, 39(4), pp.409-414.
O’Connor, D.B., Hall, L.H. and Johnson, J., 2020. Job strain, burnout, wellbeing and patient
safety in healthcare professionals. In Connecting Healthcare Worker Well-Being, Patient
Safety and Organisational Change (pp. 11-23). Springer, Cham.
Olsen, E., Bjaalid, G. and Mikkelsen, A., 2017. Work climate and the mediating role of
workplace bullying related to job performance, job satisfaction, and work ability: A study
among hospital nurses. Journal of advanced nursing, 73(11), pp.2709-2719.