Teaching to Prevent Burnout in the Helping Professions

Abstract

Introduction:  Burnout, a concept coined during the 1970’s, is a concern across many disciplines and of international interest. The term originally used colloquially to refer to the negative effects of chronic drug abuse, was applied by Fredenberger to describe the psychological state of human service workers under severe and prolonged stress (Soderfelt & Soderfelt, 1995). Maslach, a noted researcher on burnout and the author of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, defines burnout as «a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism that occurs frequently among individuals who do ‘people-work’ of some kind. A key aspect of the burnout syndrome is increased feelings of emotional exhaustion» (Maslach & Jackson, 1981b, p.99 as cited by Soderfelt & Soderfelt, 1995). Also associated with burnout are depression, feelings of alienation, helplessness and hopelessness, loss of idealism and spirit, and physical and emotional drain. According to Maslach, burnout has three dimensions including emotional exhaustion or feeling unable to give of oneself psychologically, depersonalization or feeling cynical and uncaring toward clients, and reduced personal accomplishment resulting in dissatisfaction with ones’ work (Lloyd, Kind & Chenoweth, 2002).