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What is burnout?
- A state of mental and physical exhaustion due to excessive/prolonged stress
leading to:
- emotional exhaustion
- depersonalization (cynicism)
- diminished sense of personal accomplishment
- Everyone has a physical, emotional and spiritual energy pool. Each pool has a
certain percentage of energy reserve. Activities and stress that leads to depletion of
the reserve without replenishment leads to risk of burnout.
- Physical energy pool come from caring for the physical body which includes eating,
sleeping etc.
- Emotional energy pool comes from maintaining healthy relationships at work and
home.
- Spiritual energy pool comes from connecting with your sense of purpose.
Prevalence of Burnout
- Over 50% of medical students and over 44% of physicians experience burnout with
16% experiencing clinical form of depression.
Consequences of burnout
- Physical
- Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, impaired fasting glucose, increased BMI,
metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia
- Psychological
- Increased depressive symptoms, hospital admission for mental health
disorder and insomnia
- Occupational
- Job dissatisfaction
- Absenteeism – missing work
Are you at risk of burnout?
How to reduce burnout:
- Reduce burnout through Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques:
- Mindfulness meditation
- Yoga
- Body scan
- Mindfulness breathing
- Mindfulness eating
- Mindfulness is a mental state in you focus on awareness of the present moment. The
focus can be on thoughts, sensations, and emotion without judgement.
- UMKC resources: