What we’ve said about Burnout

“it's going to look like adjustment disorder because that's pretty much the standard stress response of a human being to a bad situation when there is not a really severe medically identifiable disorder. That's pretty much burnout, right”

“So general overwhelming feelings, negative thoughts and feelings about your work or your situation. and you know recurrent thoughts about that fatigue irritability certainly feeling helpless detached these are all standard signs”

“if after a well, long enough vacation, like, you know, more than five days, if I still feel the exact same way, then I start to reconsider if it's burnout or, you know, I do need to change that job”

“That's what everyone will always say in response to that. So I'll use one of my mantras. It's not your fault, but it's your responsibility. That's how I feel”

“We don't actually have that much ability to change outcomes. We're a small piece of this system, this machine, and most of what happens with patients is determined by actions of people who are not you”

“if you invest too much of yourself into every intake, if you grip... clinical change and clinical success too firmly in your heart as a clinician, I think the patients will suffer for it because you're going to burn out”

“is really protective because, as you're saying, it gives you the freedom to actually provide the best care to everyone because you're not overextending yourselves in ways that aren't productive for the patient”

“for patients that are really pushing boundaries, the boundaries aren't nuisances that get in the way. They are the treatment. So when I'm too flexible on boundaries, when I'm too forgiving, when I'm too like I don't acknowledge my own boundaries, I don't acknowledge my own resentment towards patients”

“the way you do your practice today can't just be about the next six months or the next week for this particular patient. You have to think about how are you going to maintain yourself as a good functioning clinician over the rest of your career”

“I know there's a 30 minute block of appointment. I consider that 30 minute block the full time I have to finish the encounter. and what is the encounter the encounter is talking with the patient giving all my recommendations writing my notes and finalizing”

“I used to start early. even just a couple of years ago. And that was a mistake because it doesn't actually help you, I think. And even if on one individual case, you end up spending a little bit more time or effort, in the end, you're going to burn out”

“You got to have a scribe. You got to use AI. And me, I document during the session. I'm sorry. You can be psychotherapeutic while documenting. You just have to get used to it and know what you're doing”

“Get a silent mouse and keyboard. That's right. I have the Logitech MK295. So the patient doesn't know that I'm typing and clicking during the appointment”

“And I have a rule that by the end of the day, I need to have all those things finished. I learned that from a mentor in that, like, have a task list and don't leave work until that task list is complete”

“So just set the expectation with patients that whenever we're going to do some work together, whenever something needs to get filled out, whenever we're talking about side effects or whatever, we're going to do it in that 20 minute chunk”

“I have two emergency appointment blocks, like 30 minute. You can call it admin time or whatever. If it doesn't get filled, I, you know, finish my checklist”

“If you could have access to an MRI anytime, That would mean unnecessary imaging that would cause panic and anxiety and keep you from sticking with one set of findings. Right. Getting more information or contact with the doctor is not necessarily a good thing for treatment”

“every person I've supervised, when they say they're working until 8 p.m. or whatever, I go through their emails and I'm like, this is way too much. This is way too much. This is way too friendly”

“if we don't communicate our emotions and experience them, then they're going to turn it to something else, stress, anxiety, tension or actions. And so one of the global principles I have is that you should find people in your life that you can safely communicate your emotions to”

“So the advice I always would give was find a mentor or a supervisor who's been through these things and can help make sense of them with you”

“The ones that I found the most helpful, it was like this blend of therapy and supervision. This supervisor would ask me questions about It wasn't just answering clinical questions as much as it was my own emotions to patients”

“one of the only other avenues would be supervision, a peer discussion or support group for clinicians, or of course, emotion focused talk therapy, psychotherapy”

“the solution I've now created is I come home. And my partner, I sit down on the couch and for 10 minutes, I get all my complaints out. This person was mean to me. The food was cold. This thing happened. And then I'm done”

“You should not let your professional identity consume your life. You need to have your ordinary life, right? What you do outside of work, the reason that you're working, just simply to live”

“in order for you to be the best you at work you need to be able to disconnect and have time where you're doing other things so a part of getting a life is protecting your personal life”

“if you're not doing it, I think you got to schedule these things into your weekly schedule. It helps to schedule things because if you simply say I'm going to do more of this or that, it's not going to work”

“schedule at least one of each activity every week, an activity that you enjoy and feel fulfilled after that you do by yourself, something that you enjoy and feel fulfilled after with one other person and something that you enjoy and feel fulfilled after with a group”

“when you take time off and you take vacation, protect that time, turn your notifications off, use the covering positions. really protect that time and don't let work intrude on it”

“you set the rules for yourself about when you're going to work and when you're not going to work. Otherwise, it will pervade your life”

“the things that you do should be helping your overall functioning. It can't just be an escape, right? There's a difference between an escape and something that is helpful”

“there are some work environments that I think it's impossible not to burn out. If you just have impossible number of patient appointments, if you have no expectation for vacation, all those things, it's impossible for you to live a fulfilled life”

“If you work for someone, they're going to always want you to take on more appointments. They're always going to want to fill your appointment slots. Protect yourself. Prioritize the other things in your life”

“think about what you're contributing and think about what you're getting back. A job that does not give back at least equivalent to what you put into it. That's not a good job, right”