5 Things to Actually Help Your PT Burnout

Burnout has become its own epidemic within healthcare over the last few years. It’s been a big topic of conversation on the internet and in the media. Due to the PT profession’s poor debt-to-income ratio, high productivity standards, and low recognition as providers we own a share of that burnout. However, most of the “solutions” and discussions in the media and from our professional organizations wind up giving the same advice highlighting the topic of “self care” to address our burnout. 

While I’m all for self care, if I read one more article telling me to meditate in order to fix my burnout . . . I’m gonna scream. Now, I’m not saying self care doesn’t have its place when it comes to burnout. I myself started meditating this year and love it. However, using self care as our primary treatment starts to feel like we’re just putting a bandaid over the issue. It’s good in theory, but it’s not always realistic for PTs with families, long hours, side hustles, and other responsibilities to even have time for self care. Also lets be honest, sometimes IF you get that one free uninterrupted hour at night all you have the bandwidth for is to watch an episode of your current Netflix obsession.

Overall, self care is an extremely reactive answer to burnout. It doesn’t prevent it or actually address where it stems from. Kinda like if we were using modalities as the primary treatment to chronic low back pain. It doesn’t quite get to the root of the problem. No worries though, below are five ways to to actually help your burnout and avoid looking so slumped after work even your dog is concerned about you.

The first strategy is to do a job audit. Ask yourself – “Are there certain logistical aspects of my job majorly contributing to my burn out?” Maybe 10-hour shifts aren’t working for you anymore, maybe it’s the documentation you’re bringing home, maybe it’s the volume of patients you’re seeing, or maybe you wish your compensation reflected the amount of work you put in on a daily basis.

Everyone’s answer will be different. Depending on where you work and its management, the thing you’d like to change may or may not be changeable. Regardless, it’s likely going to require a conversation with your boss. I know that sounds scary since we PT’s aren’t always good at advocating for ourselves. You know what they say though – if you never ask, you never know. I think more of our managers than we realize are willing to work with us if given the chance. Here’s a few tips going into these conversations to make them a little less nerve-racking: 

• Prepare in advance. This is not a conversation to just “wing-it”. Run through what you’re going to say to a loved-one, friend, or trusted co-worker. You’ll feel more confident and in control. Your boss should appreciate you coming into the conversation prepared and with a level-head, which will make them more open to your viewpoint. 

• Focus on the big 1-2 aspects you would like to change. The goal of this conversation is not to create the perfect job, it’s to decrease your burnout. The truth is the perfect job doesn’t exist – in any field. You have to ask yourself what things you’re willing to put up with and what you’re not. 

• Offer a plan. Rather than say “Okay boss, this thing about my job pisses me off, now what are you gonna do about it?!”, offer a solution with terms you’re comfortable with. Again, your boss should appreciate you putting thought into it and not just laying it in their lap to work out without any collaboration on your end. I also strongly suggest doing this because it sets a precedent for what your expectations are. If you leave it completely in their hands without being vocal their idea of a solution may end up being VERY different from yours. 

These conversations are never easy, but they’re worth it. You can ask two of my co-workers who are now reaping the benefits from having one. They no longer felt 10-hour shifts were giving them a good work-life balance and asked to switch to 8s. They didn’t get the exact hours they wanted, but they did get very close and they got their 8-hour days. They’re both much happier now after making the change and glad they had that conversation.

Even if you don’t get exactly what you had in mind, it’s likely you’ll end up in a better situation than before. So what have you got to lose?  If talking to your boss doesn’t go as planned, you may have some bigger questions to ask yourself. Again, what are you willing to put up with and what are you not? One thing about our field is everyone has their own way of doing things. So, if your current position isn’t willing to offer you something you need, someone else will.

Remember being in school and sitting there FOREVER staring at a math problem unable to figure it out or fill the space on a word document with your assigned essay? Eventually you probably gave up and walked away for a while only to come back later and see the solution clearly or have the words flow right out of you. Yeah, sometimes our job is like that. 

Recently I went through a period where I was going on almost six months without taking a day of PTO. I wasn’t being a very good listener for my patients, my treatments were subpar at best, and I was just trying to get through to the next patient. I was sufficiently burnt out to say the least. Finally, I took some time off and immediately noticed a difference in my psyche and my practice. I was connecting with my patients better, my treatment plans were much more inspired, and I came up with new ideas to help get my patients reach their goals. Had I not taken the time off, I highly doubt any of that would have happened. 

Sometimes we just need a break, plain and simple. And I’m not saying you need to take a whole week off. Just a day or even an afternoon can do wonders. Especially for all you parents out there! Like I said earlier – It’s hard to do self care when there’s literally no time for it. If you’re burnt out and there’s a trip you’ve been meaning to take and you got the time, I say be like Nike and JUST DO IT.

Sometimes in the healthcare field there’s a lot of guilt around taking time off (more on that later). When we think of taking time off we’re worried about our patients seeing someone else, leaving our co-workers short-staffed, or we feel that if we don’t need the time we really shouldn’t take it. The thing is though you probably wouldn’t think these things about someone else in your situation, so why think that about yourself? It’s good to see the importance of our work and take pride in what we do, but your patients and co-workers will be okay without you. In the end you’ll thank you, and honestly, your patients probably will too. 

Now, if you’re like me, you hoard your PTO and only take it when there’s a reason to or sometimes taking PTO just isn’t an option. If this is your situation, I do have an option B and that is to set some boundaries. I’m particularly looking at you home-health and acute care, or any of you who make your own schedules! Acute care, don’t choose to stay late for that last low priority treat, do your doc and go home on time. Home health, turn your phone off by a certain time at night. Outpatient, don’t agree to those extra patients on your schedule. We often are very good advocates for our patients, but it’s gonna be hard to continue to do that if we’re burnt out, so let’s remember to be advocates for ourselves every now then.  

Sometimes just learning a new skill may not fix that feeling of stagnancy. You may no longer feel passionate about where you work or your current work setting. If you think this applies to you, it might be time for a bigger change. One of the other great things about the PT profession is if you don’t like the kind of PT you’re currently doing, there’s other settings out there.

I know you may be thinking, “but I’ve done (insert current setting here) for “x” amount of years! There’s no way I could switch now.”  I’m here to tell you that YES, you can. It will be hard at first and you will feel completely out of your comfort zone, but that’s kind of the point!

I know, now you’re thinking “But no one is going to want me in a new setting after “x” years in my old position!”. You’re wrong there too. Yes, you may have the potential to lose out on some jobs to more experienced clinicians in that setting, but it doesn’t completely count you out. Having experience can give you the edge over new grads and experience won’t be the only deciding factor. If you make a good impression, vibe with the employer, and they think you’re the best fit for their team, that will get you the job over anything else.

Nothing says you have to switch settings either. Maybe you stay in the same wheelhouse but look to find a job with a different patient population, with more opportunities, or that challenges you differently. You also don’t have to hate where you work to justify switching it up. You can have no ill-feelings about your current job but also know it’s time for a change in scenery. 

Okay so this last one may not directly address the causes of burnout, but it can lessen the load of it. This is also something I don’t think is talked about enough. The only thing worse than being burnt out is feeling guilty about being burnt out. Sometimes I think burnout weighs heavier on healthcare workers in general because of the guilt attached to it.

We beat ourselves up because the preface of our job is helping people. Thoughts like “Gosh my job is helping people, what kind of person gets burnt out on that?” or “I chose to spend my life healing people, how can I justify feeling burnt out?” But you do this day in and day out and the fact is no matter what you do, you’re going to feel burnt out at some point. Everyone goes through a period of at least mild burnout regardless of what their job is. Working in healthcare does not make you immune to burnout or a villain for feeling it.

I mean people even get burnt out on things they LIKE! For example, I love mac and cheese, but if I ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day I probably wouldn’t be craving it too often. You may like to golf, read, whatever your hobby of choice is, but if you did it every day all day you would get burnt out on that too. So give yourself some grace. Remind yourself it’s okay to have those feelings about your job. Just because you’re in healthcare doesn’t make your burnout wrong. Dealing with burnout is hard already, added feelings of guilt are only going to make it more difficult to address. 

So there you have it! Five ways to ACTUALLY help with your burnout. I hope you found some of these suggestions useful. If one stuck out to you, share in the comments section! Also, if you put one of these into action shoot me a message through the contact page or comment below how it went! It may inspire someone else to give it a try. We can each start treating the causes of our burnout rather than the symptoms to make us an overall happier and healthier profession. 

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