Burnout and Moral Injury in Helping Professionals

We’ve all heard the term burnout–exhaustion, reduced sense of purpose, physical exhaustion as a result of pouring ourselves out. Yet there’s another term that overlaps with burnout and informs it more and more these days–moral injury. The essence underlying both is the same: our capacity and energy tanks, and our feeling of purpose whittles away.

Burnout and Moral Injury–definitions

Burnout is a result of systemic pressures and chronic stress situations usually surrounding our job, vocation, or care that we give. (We can have caregiving fatigue that is separate from burnout–I discuss that important difference here.) Burnout accompanies the way we give and how we become increasingly worn out and weary on an emotional, physical, mental level. We can become irritable with those we care for and find less motivation and increased frustration with our job and livelihood.

Moral injury occurs when we are forced to act or witness actions against our deeply held beliefs or values. This can happen when professionals must violate their ethics. It often is a deep feeling of powerlessness and can even cause feelings of shame. Moral injury strikes to the core of who we are and what we’re meant to do, and runs into that. We can question then our identity and purpose.

Exhaustion on a Core Level

Teachers, nurses, chaplains, physicians, counselors–whatever helping professional you are, you know on a personal level how “the system” causes often daily challenges to do your job proficiently and effectively. The modern day burnout epidemic reaches almost every workplace domain in the United States, but our healers have another layer–their choice of vocation is usually profoundly connected to their sense of meaning, purpose and call to the work. We don’t just get exhausted because the job demands. We get exhausted because the system isn’t working.

The essence is this: our frustration is a result of a chronic harm to our value systems, and that frustration and exhaustion hits us on a soul level.

First Steps:

• Acknowledge that your weariness is not your fault.

We must first name the fact that we are burned out and morally fatigued, that the systems are failing us in multiple ways, but we aren’t bystanders or victims. We have a vested interest in seeing clearly what is happening and clarify our roles in those systems.

• Identify your core values and how they contribute to your work.

Why did you get into your work in the first place? What drew you to your vocation? Reflect on what that was like, to connect to your sense of purpose. Understand that “call,” or purpose, often changes in our lives, but our underlying core values don’t. Some values I’ve heard clients tell me are: compassion, justice, empathy, change, healing.

• Seek community.

You are not alone. Is there one person you can trust who can be there for you, listen empathetically, and possibly be a co-advocate for change? We can’t do any of this alone, nor are we meant to. With healthy community, we can begin to acknowledge not just our hurt and see it validated, we can also find support in first steps towards moving from a sense of burnout and moral injury back into a posture of purpose, meaning, and vitality.

• Foster compassion

Sustainable healing work always begins with compassion–for self, for others, and even, if we’re brave enough, offering compassion for the broken systems themselves. Sharon Salzberg, one of the leading meditation researchers–offers a loving kindness meditation that can be useful for this practice. Nourishing embodiment practices for self-awareness, such as yoga or practicing hand yoga–or mudras–can be supportive. Bringing awareness to the moment–mindfulness–is proven to reduce stress and improve resiliency, as well as sense of burnout.

• Get help

When we are burned out or struggling with moral injury, we often have overlapping anxiety, chronic stress, or even substance issues or relationship problems alongside. Many of us need safe spaces that can include trauma therapy or integrative healthcare to help us reorient and re-value how our bodies are struggling under the pressures. There are lots of avenues for these kind of resources, so if you don’t quite know what’s best, reach out for a free consult or contact your healthcare provider. If your stress level gets so high you or someone you love is at risk of harming themselves or others, call 988, the national mental health resource hotline in the US, or contact your local crisis center.

A Note To Remember:

When we are healers and helpers, we often have multiple roles–other than our paid job–that demand much of us. Our connection to our work is only as strong as our resourcing–mental and emotional, yes, but also social, communal, and cultural. Nourishing practices help us root not just back into our value system, but remind us that we are always a part of the whole, and that always matters, no matter how we feel.

Our systems may have major issues, to say the least, and some of us have the resourcing to give extra time and energy and money for advocacy on a governmental or legislative level to enact wider change.

In the meantime, at least today, a nap may be what is called for. Or a moment playing cards with your 3rd grader, or petting your cat. Or a walk outside in the rain. Or a chat on the phone with a friend.

When we foster a regular practice of presence and remind us our connections matter, our sense of lack becomes instead our reclaimed power to guide us forward from burnout into courage–and joy.