Ten Ways To Know You're Burning Out

**VivaLasViejas**, ASN, RN

Here's something a little different from the writer who usually brings you the funny top-10 lists.

Recently, a good friend of mine I'll call "Viv"---an LPN who's worked at the same LTC for eight-and-a-half years---suddenly up and quit her job. Without notice. Just went to work one morning, told the DNS, "I'm done", handed in a hastily scribbled resignation letter, and shook the dust of the place from her feet.

Not surprisingly, Viv is having trouble finding a new job, even though she's one of the best nurses I know and would hire in a New York minute if I had a position for an LPN. Quitting a nursing job without notice, especially in this economy, is a cardinal sin for which I fear she may pay a terrible price. Yet she is oddly calm about the entire episode, because, as she says, "there are worse things than being unemployed.....like going on the way I was."

Now our group of friends are left to wonder what drove such a wonderful nurse to such a desperate act. Even Viv herself doesn't fully understand what happened; all she knows is that the stresses and strains incurred on the job quietly piled on top of each other for years, until critical mass was reached and she couldn't take it anymore. Now, she's just a statistic---another victim of nursing burnout.

Most of us have been there. I know I have.......more than once. So how do nurses learn to recognize the signs that we're getting a little crispy around the edges and take measures to combat burnout, rather than wait until we're completely fried and then commit career hara-kiri? Here are a few clues I wish Viv had listened to before flaming out in such spectacular fashion:

Ten Ways To Know You're Burning Out

1) Take inventory of the shifts you've worked over a period of at least 4 weeks. If the bad days outnumber the good ones, it may be time to look at changing positions. Life is too short for sucky jobs; to avoid burnout, you have to take action when the suckage overrides the benefits of staying put.

2) Do a gut-check. Are you mostly satisfied with what you do at work, or do you dread going in every day? Again, if you're having two or three bad shifts every week, you are probably not enjoying life even OUTSIDE of work and it's time to consider other options.

3) Ask your family and/or friends if you seem more on edge than usual. They're almost always the first to feel it when a nurse is in the early stages of burnout......oftentimes, before we're aware that we're getting frazzled.

4) Note your overall mood and energy levels. Sometimes, what we think of clinically as 'depression' strikes us when we're starting to brown around the edges: we start feeling anxious, sad or blue; we may sleep or eat excessively (or not sleep/eat enough), and so on. Other times, it may simply be a free-floating unease that we can't put a finger on.....we only sense that something isn't quite right.

5) If you spend a lot of your waking time daydreaming about winning the lottery or counting the years/days/minutes till retirement.....you may be approaching burnout.

6) If you constantly think about the job, talk about the job, have nightmares about the job......you're probably already there.

7) How's your overall health? Is your blood pressure creeping up? Have your diet and exercise habits changed? Are you still enjoying all of your normal off-duty activities, or do you find yourself saying "I'm too tired" and begging off whenever you're invited to go out with friends or family?

? When was the last time you read a good book........went to church........saw a movie........knitted a sweater........played a game with your kids?

9) If you have vacation time saved up (and what nurse with symptoms of burnout doesn't?), take a week or two and see how you feel after you've unwound for a few days. Imagine walking back in to your workplace; does the thought inspire a reaction like "Yes, I'll be ready to go back to work," or "OMG---if I never went back it'd still be a day too soon"? If it's the latter, you may want to consider using the last few days of your vacation to look for another job.

10) If, when you ask yourself whether you can imagine doing this for the rest of your life---or even for the next twelve months---and the answer is "Oh, HELL no".....you are burnt to a crisp and had better call for help before you get hosed. Believe me, if you're burned out, your supervisors have noticed it, and there are too many hungry new grads and older, experienced nurses out there who need work......so do whatever you have to in order to quell the flames and refresh yourself. Your career, your emotional well-being, and even your health may depend on it.

Learn more about nursing burn out