Human Service Professional Burnout Job Analysis

There have been an increasing number of studies done in the past 40 years based on the concept of “burn-out” and specifically the work environment for human service workers and the evident amount of job stress these suffer from. Human service workers play a vital role in our community and it is terrible to think that so many of these passionate people are overwhelmed and burnout from their careers. Another big issue is not only the impact burnout has on the individual but on their clients and organization. A professional who is burned out cannot assist a client to the best of their ability. For example, an inmate in a correctional facility will not be getting the best care in order to rehabilitate them and reintegrate them into society if

Identifying the problem statement is the first step in determining what the issue is and why it is important for research. Once that has been determined formulation of the problem can been done which helps lay the groundwork for writing a research paper. In addition, the problem that has been chosen as a topic for research is, Are social workers at a higher-risk for burnout and compassion fatigue because of job stress? The problem statement is will educating social workers about burnout and fatigue decrease the possibility of burnout. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the scope of this problem such as the background and what the differences are in compassion fatigue and burnout and the purpose of why this research study is important in social work practice.

About 60% of healthcare professionals report they are burned out. Signs of this growing epidemic are chronic exhaustion, fatigue and lack of energy, cynicism about life along with withdrawal and loss of enthusiasm for the ideals of nursing and feelings of ineffectiveness in healthcare work leading to low morale and less productivity (Davis-Laack, 2016).

Burnout affects people both personally and professionally regardless of occupation. In recent years the conception of burnout has been modified, and above all it has begun to be treated as a phenomenon which affects members of many professions not only those of the human service professions, due to burnout is described as a crisis in one’s relationship with work in general (Chirkowska-Smolak & Kleka, 2011). Academicians routinely spend many tiring hours reading, writing, lecturing, and solving countless problems that are sustained by their students and institutions. This level of involvement can be emotionally draining and coupled with working environments that are often highly stressful has the potential to lead to burnout (Maslach et. al, 2001). This emotional involvement is the primary reason of the increasing rate of burnout among academic staff in an educational institution depending on the country’s working conditions (Akgemci et al., 2013). Feelings of emotional exhaustion are a key aspect of the burnout syndrome.

The research that I have chosen correlates burnout and depression. It asks the question, “Is Burnout a Depressive Disorder?” It further reexamines burnout with special focus on atypical depression. Its main purpose is to study the prevalence of depression disorder in workers with burnout while surveying the overlap of burnout with atypical depression. (Bianchi, Schonfeld , & Laurent, 2014) The researchers have derived this problem from researching through previous literature and researches that discuss about burnout, depression and furthermore into atypical depression; in which they have noted that burnout shares key features with atypical depression. (APA, 1994; Quitkin, 2002). In their research, the researchers referenced a study that used more conservative cutoff scores for defining cases of burnout, have found no diagnostically significant difference between burned-out workers and depressed outpatients in terms of reported depressive symptoms. (Bianchi et al. (2013). The author of the study suggested that burnout and depression may, in fact, reflect the same psychopathology. There are other study that the researcher have referenced that further support the finding that burnout share the same similarities as depression. Although they have also deduced that the overlap of burnout and atypical depression has never been investigated in a systematic manner. Thus the need for the study as burnout should be considered a form of depression still remains a controversy

The research materials consisted of questionnaires, while two are standardized test and the other questions are to collect the sociodemographic and health data of the participants. The first standardized questionnaire that the researchers used is MBI. It consists of 21 questions that measures burn-out and furthermore into its components namely: emotional exhaustion, depolarization and accomplishments. It uses a scale system from 0 to 6 wherein 0 is never and 6 is for every day experience. (Ahola et al., 2005; Brenninkmeijer & van Yperen, 2003) Participants were assigned to a burnout group or non-burnout group based on their mean score. To be assigned to the burnout group, subjects need to score at least 5. The non-burnout group subjects were those that scored, at most, 1.

Olson, Kemper and Mahan (2015), examined factors which promote resilience and protect against burnout in first-year paediatric and medicine-paediatric residents, which were emotional intelligence, empathy, self-compassion, and mindfulness. Emotional intelligence were measured using the Emotional Social Competency Inventory (ESCI 3.0), professional empathy were measured using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, mindfulness using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, compassion with the short-form of Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale, resilience using Smith’s Brief Resilience Scale and Burnout were measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey, a 22-item scale developed to assess burnout among professionals that work

A workshop will be developed to focus on prevention burnout among mental health workers by implementing mindfulness. Studies have found that mental health workers have a high risk of developing burnout, which impacts the client’s quality of care (Green, et al., 2014). Burnout is a result of sustained time of stress caused by high caseloads, monthly productivity demands, policies, administrative responsibilities, and low-wages (Franco, 2015). The process of burnout involves failure, wearing out, exhaustion due to high demands on the workers resources, energy, and strengthens (Franco, 2015). Symptoms of burnout are exhibited physically and behaviorally, such as sleepiness, articulating negative attitudes and difficulty holding feelings (Freudenberger,

Burnout out refers to a state of physical, emotional and psychological exhaustion that occurs due to prolonged engagement in work situations that are emotionally exacting (Maslach et al. 2001, Schufeli & Greenglass 2001, Schaufeli Et al. 2009). It is characterized by three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach 1976). Of the three dimensions, emotional exhaustion is recognized as being most central to understanding burnout from one’s work (Maslach et al. 2001, Cox et al. 2005). Emotional burnout was the focus of this

“The moral is that service recovery is often an opportunity to turn a customer (patient) into a loyal fan” (Du Pre, 2014, pp.279-280). Our employees will receive training on how to reach patients using a logical and emotional appeal. Employees being provided with skill training will result in more confidence in their work performance, which directly associates with a decreased measure of anxiety and they are more averse to encounter burnout. Du Pre define burnout as an “emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment” (Du Pre, 2014, p.115).

I dug into some research further regarding burnout and would like to share a few points I found extremely valuable from the journal article, Taking Care of Ourselves to Take Care of Others:

While many of the nation’s social workers feel overburdened and underappreciated from time to time, burnout is another matter. Burnout is a serious issue whose endpoint can entail mental confusion, psychosocial distress, and physical collapse. Burnout is pervasive. Enter the words “social work” and “burnout” into an Internet search engine and you’ll be rewarded with thousands of hits, a sober reminder of the significant stresses inherent in our profession, particularly among CPS workers. According to experts, the causes of burnout are varied, including heavy caseloads, unrealistic timeframes, low pay, lack of appreciation, and adverse working conditions without foreseeable relief. Burnout may be intolerable, but the consequences of burnout

Burnout is most common in individuals that are motivated and dedicated in his or her field of services, including among human services professionals. This discussion will included the definition of burnout, describing some of the individual, cultural, organizational, supervisory, and social support factors that cause burnout, describing various individual, job role, and organizational methods to prevent burnout, examine your own personality and share how you react and respond to personal and

My score on the burnout assessment is a 32, indicating there are a few signs of burnout. This module was a real eye opener for me, as it provided a good explanation of burnout versus stress. I would always say that “I am stressed out” and now I know I was experiencing burnout. Burnout is a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion over a long period of time; while stress is feeling out of control for a short period of time.

I avoid academic burnout in multiple ways. One of them is eating well and getting plenty of rest. These are both important to my studying as they both improve my brain function and help me to feel healthy and well rested. Another thing I do is involve myself in multiple extracurricular activities at my school. These give me creative and athletic outputs, thus helping me to focus on the task at hand, such as studying. One additional thing that I do to avoid burnout is seeking help from teachers. When I am struggling with a topic in a certain class, I go straight to the teacher, they have all been more than willing to help me.