Burnout Among Healthcare Workers

I recently came across an article by writer and journalist Anne Helen Petersen. Titled "How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation", the article explores millennials' reluctance to get seemingly mundane tasks done, like registering to vote, managing appointments, or mailing out packages. Petersen terms this phenomenon "errand paralysis", and goes on to attribute it to a myriad of factors unique to the Millennial condition, such as the post-2008 financial crisis employment landscape, the emergence of social media and the role it plays in blurring the lines between work and life, the need to compete with Gen Zs for traditionally "secure, middle-class jobs"...the list goes on. I can't help but notice similarities between the burned out, errand-paralyzed Millennials and healthcare workers (aspiring healthcare workers like myself included). Burnout is such a big issue in healthcare and a major contributor to resignation, self harm, or suicide among healthcare workers that going into pharmacy school, my peers and I joked that we must have a masochistic streak to voluntarily put ourselves through additional years of rigorous schooling, rotations, and residencies, all the while incurring massive amounts of debt. 

I must admit, as I am writing this blogpost after a long day at school (and a long, treacherous semester in general), I too am burned out. I want to become a pharmacist because I have a genuine interest in medications and the principles behind their mechanisms, and a strong desire to help patients navigate complex, potentially dangerous medication therapy regimens. But, in moments when I am weighed down by stress, my mind racing about exams, assignments, and the mundane tasks that when pieced together, seemed like a leviathan ready to drag me down to the depths of exhaustion and burnout, I do wonder: if I am this miserable now, where will I be in five years? What kind of pharmacist will I become? 

I don't know if other students in my cohort have felt like this, or if healthcare students and workers share similar sentiments. But, in order to reduce burnout, some breathing space must be given. My personal opinion is that certain health systems and healthcare school curriculums have become fixated on optimizing the idea of wellness, that they are making people unwell by burdening them with extra tasks and assignments. Examples include mandatory online 'resiliency' training modules and mandatory essays that make people reflect on wellness, personal improvement, and end of year achievements. Why not improve wellness by limiting the number of items on a healthcare worker or student's to-do list? In my opinion, less is more.