Hello, welcome back. For this session we're going to be looking at overcoming and preventing burnout, a very important issue. Back in 2018, World Health Organization declared burnout as a legitimate medical diagnosis. So it's important that we bring this to the forefront to raise awareness of what it is, how to prevent and overcome it. Particularly now that we're in a pandemic and as a pandemic subside, we're going to see much more people who have this diagnosis. At the University Health Network, we created a wellness management tool to help individuals and team manage burnout during this pandemic. And this is also intended to engage individuals and have this healthy conversation that we can come up with strategies to manage burnout. I will also be sharing two assessment tools in this session. One is called the abbreviated mass laugh inventory and burnout has called Oldenburg burnout inventory developed by Dr. Van Julia. The goal for this session is to address this pressing issue and help with awareness. And I also want to help you understand what it is. I will not be going in a lot of details but I hope that with the information I provide you, you can learn signs of burnout and assess for burnout now or in the future so that you can address it as soon as possible. And I'm also going to leave you with some tools and resources. So what is it? It's a psychological syndrome that has chronic emotional and physical exhaustion, there's depersonalization and reduce personal accomplishment. There's also depletion of emotional resources and not being able to give of self on a psychological level. It's coming among healthcare workers, managers, teachers and caregivers and it affects individuals with extreme stress. So that could include someone caring for a loved one. Here we have the symptoms of burnout, so it's characterized by three main features and I've highlighted some in the definition. And that is extreme exhaustion, poor performance or reduce professional effectiveness and there's depersonalization. So one will have a lot of cynicism, lack of empathy and detached from clients and patients or individuals they're caring for. The above features can lead to many symptoms and also are signs of burnout. So you have irritability, physical illnesses, poor self care, feeling sad, depressed, helpless. There is questioning of your mortality, increased cynical and negative outlook, withdrawing from relationship. Using maladaptive coping strategies like excessive intake of sugar, caffeine, alcohol or drugs and second guessing oneself. So here I put in the link of the 12 stages of burnout and this was developed by a psychologist, Herbert, Few Den Burger and Gail North. If you're here to learn more, I have the link here. But I see here the 12 stages are quite self explanatory and it has already been highlighted in the definition and symptoms. I don't want to be repetitive, but it shows you where you'd start off and then as you continue, you end up with the burnout syndrome. So we want to keep these things in mind when you start having these to speak to a health care provider before it gets too late. So here we have the stress performance curve. So on this curve, we have, to the left, we have stress and as I said in the refresh from stress session, it is inevitable, we all have stress. But as it continue here, we see fatigue will start, we'll start having the fatigue, and then when we don't address that, we then have exhaustion. Too much stress, we're overload, and if this continues, then we're going to end up with burnout. Right now we have some challenges, a lot of us have to work from home, so it's very difficult to distress. And an important part of address, sorry, of overcoming burnout is taking that pause and disconnect. It is very difficult for individuals who find themselves working from home. Your home is taken over by a work, and especially if you have a small space, on top of that, you may have younger ones around you. So it could be your children or those you're in charge of, and they could be in post secondary, high school, elementary school or even a child you would have otherwise take two a day care is now at home. So you're schooling and caring for them while you have to work while we're dealing with restrictions. So it is real and we are more susceptible to burnout as a result of those factors. Dr. Jordan illustrated very well how stress can affect our physical wellbeing. He spoke about stress release adrenaline levels and when it happens too often and for too long we have too many stress. And that is where we have the hormone cortisol releasing and this is what put us at risk and it put us at risk from many things. The Heart and Stroke Foundation in Canada spoke to heart related issue as a result of of stress. So we want to stop and reset and don't stay in a high stress state for too long. I'm going to be giving you the burnout tests right now. There are two links for the different tests, At the bottom for example, I'll click the link, and you'll see the Wellbeing Support Services. So this is where we have the Burnout's questionnaire. It is confidential, and it will help you screen yourself for symptoms of burnout. It will help you identify feelings and experiences you have about your work, so that you can get a feel of whether you might be vulnerable to burnout. And just keep in mind, it's very common in caring profession as it relates to work. So as you answer these, you will hit Submit at the bottom, and it will calculate your result. There's the other one here and I've put just a visual so you can see some of the questions that it will ask you, and then it will tell you what your score means. So let's go to the next slide. So here, I just thought I'll highlight, like I said, this is not a session that will get in too much detail but I thought the susceptibility to burnout, it's important. Just keep in mind if you're one who has difficulty say no and difficulty delegating and you're overloading yourself. Just really be aware that it can lead to burnout if you're going to be staying in that state and constantly be working away. Ut puts you at risk. And if you're a high achiever, high resilient individual, it also can make you susceptible and, of course, for those who are in stressful job or stressful situations in your life. How do you effectively address burnout? So the Canadian Medical Association speaks to how working situation condition. So burnout is, goes beyond the individual. If you are in a work situation where we have system issues around you, so you may have a lot of bottlenecks and things that it's beyond our control. So that is why at the University Health Network, the burnout tool that they're using, it's done in partnership with leaders because it's just many factors that will cause burnout, and a lot of things that need to be addressed to fully, sorry, and a lot of factors need to be considered and address for this. It's a big issue, and efforts are needed on a large scale to promote condition needed to promote, to sustain, and support health and wellness. And the example is for physician, because that is Canada Medical Association focused on physicians, but this is applicable widely. We're going beyond the symptoms as well to get full understanding of the rule causes, including unique cultural factors in organization that can impede progress of burnout. Because you may want to be addressing issues, but you gotta get, look at all the factors, and then having effective plans in place. So I've noticed that in a lot of the literature that having effective plans in place for those returning to work from burnout is important. So, let's get into a quick activity. So here, we're going to look at visualization. This is something that we use in our refreshed session. So that's where I mentioned, we have a menu of activities that stuff can participate in virtually and in person to help them decompress and take a break from their work. And this can also help to prevent burnout. So when you do visualization, it helps us, and you don't need input from your eyes. Visualization can also occur in first or third person. When you're visualizing or seeing an object, it activates similar ears of the brain. And studies have also shown that visualization is useful for working memory, spatial navigation, and reasoning about future events. Visualization help with resilience. So that is where you bounce back from adversity and recover from burnout. And visualizing positive reaction to negative situation provides feeling of mastery. Visualization may enable more balance appraisal of the situation. This is all from the literature. And visualizing would involve using your senses. So things you can see, smell, hear, touch, and taste, and doing this repetitively can also help you. You don't need any special technique as well like speaking softer or with a thundering voice, just be yourself as you start developing a practice like this. So, let's get into the activity. Find a comfortable position, notice how you feel right now, physically and mentally. Take a deep breath through your nose, and remember that I said earlier in the stress reductions workshop, four times in the nose as you inhale, eight times the mob as you exhale. Let's try. So you can breathe some more if you're needing that. You can pause a bit video, just to get your body to relax. And do that until you're relax because you're going to need that relaxation for this visualization activity. You can close your eyes or gaze down because this will help you to focus. So now begin to create a picture in your mind as the sky. Imagine feeling completely at ease. Perhaps you may think of a favorite place you have been, like a vacation spot or where you've, something you've seen, park, or a beautiful art, being in a gallery, just be completely imaginary. And, or sorry, or it could be completely imaginary. So it's up to you if you choose something you know or something you want to imagine. You can picture yourself at a beach, in a garden, Or even in your bed. Picture this place where you feel happy and calm. Create the details of this place in your mind. Visualize all the sights, the sounds, and the smell of where you are. Imagine how you feel physically, you are comfortable enjoying the pleasant temperature Enjoying being still and relaxed. Enjoy the way you feel, you're calm, you're safe here, you're at peace with yourself. From this place, you have power and choice. Return again to this favorite place. Imagine that feeling of calm and positivity. Remain in your peaceful place while you focus calmly on the following statements. I am calm like the sky. I handle any difficult situations with grace. I have the power to choose. I am at peace. Now it is time to leave your special place. Know that you can return here in your imagination any time to relax, feel calm, comfortable, and safe. Continue to feel positive and accepting of yourself. So, how was that? So, here I'm going to share two tools. One, we have many apps these days, many things that we can use, the apps can help us even to go to bed. We also can use them to counter or start to see when we are walking around or doing any physical activity. We have apps for nutrition, many things are here. So, please take advantage if you don't have these as yet. We also do journaling for wellness at University Health Network. So, this is where we staff have access to journals, and we make this book marker for them. And you'll see this quote, everyday is a fresh start by anonymous. So, that is where you're going to write. We encourage people to write daily in their journal. There's a body of evidence that speak to the therapeutic value of journaling. And here we have a reminder that journal can help manage constant worry, reduce stress, build your resilience. And you could use a journal to prioritize problems, fears, and concerns, track daily feelings, recognize trigger, and state how to control them. And you could use it in so many ways, and we have tips here in how to get started. Even just summarize 20 words or less, or draw a picture, write a poem, a prayer. Write words describing your feelings, or thought, or even express gratitude. For me, gratitude journal, I mentioned earlier in the gratitude session, it's really helpful for me, and it really put me in a positive frame of mind. Tips for preventing burnout. Let me speak to just a few more things you can do as we wrap up. So, creating meaning in your life is important. And I mentioned here, volunteering, showing gratitude, and connecting spiritually. Build a routine with a healthy lifestyle practice. So, for me, walking is important, and my app helps and encourage me. So, when I notice I'm only at 5,000 steps for the day, I will make that extra effort to go and walk around to get in much more steps because my goal is 10,000 steps per day. And the music, I mentioned, I love music. Just add that in to everything you do and enjoy nurturing yourself and connecting with others. And I have much more here, I highlighted here again about the respite centers we have at the University Health Network. And we use that and encourage that because staff need to take a break, relax, have that pause and just reset to go back to work. And join a virtual group. If we continue in this pandemic, if you're watching this video, we're still in the pandemic, you can join many groups. And I've listed different groups here. And just normalize your experience if you're not having a good time and checking with yourself and others. Speak to someone in the medical field, or someone who is a counselor, a spiritual leader, or even a friend to start. Or at the University Health Network, we have peer-to-peer support line. We also have a mental health line, and we have employee assistant program. So, we've given staff many options of reaching out and just the mode and share symptoms you could be having. And they could probably help with the diagnosing of whether you're having burnout or not. Thank you so much. So, remember, know what burnout is, early symptoms, prevention, it's important. And as you recover, make sure that you are going to stop some of what you were doing. And as you go back to work, you could work with your leader, or if you return to that normal state, you want to remove things in your life. If your burnout is not associated with being at work, you can just try to remove things and work through some plans with a therapist or someone who has expertise and know this issue well, thank you.
