STRESS AND BURNOUT IN THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL

Course overview

Stress, stated simply, is the way an individual interprets and responds to an event. What is perceived to be stressful to one person, may be challenging and exciting to another. Not all stress is bad. Weddings, job promotions, and vacations can all produce stress, but most identify these as harmless stress events. But the stress of caregiving, in an imperfect system, can be fatiguing. Such emotional fatigue can result in burnout. Burnout is the progressive process of fatigue and depletion of resources; energy is reduced; the possibility of investing in others diminishes.