In this article we discuss:
- How are stress and burnout different?
- Does one lead to the other?
- Can you have both healthcare burnout and feel stressed out?
- Is this a common misconception about burnout?
- What signs and symptoms did I display when I stressed versus when I was burned out?
Watch on YouTube!
What is pharmacist burnout? How is Stress different from burnout in pharmacy and healthcare?
- Stress
is:
- Over-engagement
- Urgency
- Hyperactivity
- Burnout
is:
- Disengagement
- Helplessness
- Hopelessness
- Stress is a mental and emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, and behavioral changes, burnout is a result of prolonged exposure to stress
- The longer you are exposed to chronic stress, the more difficult it is for our parasympathetic system to turn it off once the stress is over
- Prolonged high levels of stress turn into BURNOUT
| Stress | Burnout |
| Overengagement | Disengagement |
| Sense of urgency or hyperactivity – research writing, manuscripts, reformatting to each journal | Sense of helplessness – didn’t even want to try anymore, research team helped lift me up through this |
| Reactive or over reactive emotions – reacted to work bully | Blunted or distant emotions – isolated myself |
| Lost or diminished energy – my mentors tell me that I literally would flutter my eyes during our meetings because I was so fatigued (beyond tired no coffee or nap could lift me up) and lacked energy at 3 or 4pm | Motivation is lost or diminished – not even motivated to get out of bed in the morning and dreaded Monday mornings, didn’t even care to shower and put myself together |
| Leads to anxiety – anxious if I was doing enough, being enough, accomplishing enough | Leads to feeling depressed – felt guilt then shame and failure |
| Physically tolling – headaches, neck/back pain and GI discomforts | Emotionally tolling – I couldn’t process information well anymore, and I cried – a lot – ups and downs and swings from anger to crying |
This topic first appeared on The Burnout Doctor Podcast episode 6 – listen here
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