This is our second installment in our blog series for healthcare professionals.
Careers in healthcare are not jobs, they are callings. People were drawn to working in the field because they cared. At their core, they felt a drive to make lives better for others. They felt a connection with the patients under their care and with the connection comes a personal mission that encompasses a career choice. It is a noble calling, but unfortunately, it is also one where the potential for personal burnout is alarmingly high. Why? There are many reasons, but one that is often overlooked lies in nature of the employees themselves.
Healthcare workforce members are focused on other people and often neglect themselves in the process. Self-care is a foreign concept. The pandemic highlighted the problem of burnout among the healthcare workforce that has existed for quite some time but did not receive much attention. Take nursing for example. It is the most giving of professions, but people cannot be endlessly giving for infinity. The product that nurses provide to their patients is themselves. If the nurses’ personal self- care is lacking, their tanks will run dry, and burnout will result. With burnout comes both physical and mental illness, substance abuse, high rates of absenteeism and ultimately, employee turnover.
Nurses invest themselves in their jobs, so their employers must be willing to invest in them. RNs, CNAs, LPNs, they are all the fuel that allows the facilities to function. The employer-employee relationship must move beyond purely economic. Economic investment for people who give of themselves is not sustainable. Rather, there is an urgent need for emotional investment. The staff must be replenished of what they are expending. If healthcare employers wish to see the high levels of employee turnover decrease, they must be willing to demonstrate the same level of commitment to their staff that their staff expends to their patients. It cannot be a one-way relationship.
Healthcare professionals are expected to bring empathy to their patients, but do they treat themselves with the same level of empathy? They care for others, but do they prioritize self-care? It is time for healthcare employers to bridge the gap and place focus on caring for their staff the way their staff is expected to care for their patients. Unless their employees are emotionally supported and taught the proper skills to care for themselves emotionally, financial incentives will never be enough to create stability in the healthcare workforce.
By acknowledging healthcare professionals for who they are, emotional givers, and teaching them on how to turn that amazing level of giving inward, a personal balance will be achieved. If healthcare professionals, as employees, feel cared for, supported, and replenished, they will be more attuned as human beings and able to get back to the reasons they entered the profession- the experience of purpose and value derived from giving yourself to the patients who are lucky enough to be under your care.