First Responder Burnout

Burnout is a common condition experienced by many first responders, it is tough to quantify the number of first responders that experience burnout, since it can appear in many different ways and because first responders are often reluctant to reach out for help when they are experiencing mental health concerns. Studies have identified that somewhere between 30% and 60% of first responders experience burnout at some point during their career.

What is Burnout?

Burnout is a buzzword heard in the media today, but what is it and how does it affect first responders? Burnout is a state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet the constant demands of work, home, and other life responsibilities. It was a term coined by Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s to describe the severe stress in the helping professions. If you would like to read more about burnout in general, click here.

First responders face intense amounts of stress in their jobs that they cannot control. Burnout in first responders is characterized by three components…

Emotional exhaustion - overwhelming fatigue and feeling emotionally drained
Disconnection - cynical attitude toward the job and people served
Reduced personal accomplishment - feelings of inefficiency and lack of achievement at work.

Burnout is an umbrella term that includes individual burnout, interpersonal burnout, and organizational burnout. Many first responders experience effects of all three levels of burnout.

Individual Burnout: results from a person placing high standards on themselves and subsequently failing to meet those standards
Interpersonal Burnout: the compounding stress one experiences at work due to difficult coworkers, a difficult boss, or difficult volunteers.
Organizational Burnout: this refers to the poor organizational culture and extreme demands management places on their employees.

When first responders start experiencing burnout, many times before they can put a name to what they are feeling, they often start getting complaints from patients, family members of the patients, and coworkers. When you are so physically and emotionally drained that you have nothing left to give your patients they will start calling your boss and complaining that you were mean, or nasty, or did not respond to their concerns with an appropriate level of care. Also when first responders start experiencing burnout their family members notice and it can take a toll on their home life. The key point to understand with burnout is that it leads to poor performance and if your family member was in the back of the ambulance or their house was on fire you would want the paramedics and firefighters to be at the top of their game. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Additional signs of burnout include sadness, depression, apathy, being easily frustrated, irritability, blaming others, feeling indifferent or lacking feelings, isolation and disconnection from others, poor self-care, feelings of exhaustion, and being overwhelmed. The prolonged stress of working in a dangerous environment can eventually lead to burnout if not mitigated and burnout combined with prior or current mental health concerns can be deadly. The good news is burnout can be treated once it is recognized and even prevented.

Prevention strategies

Unfortunately, there is no way to truly prevent mental illness in someone due to the complexities of the human psyche and the intricacies of mental illnesses, but we can manage our stress and prevent burnout. Managing stress and preventing burnout often go hand in hand. With stress levels increasing in the workplace on top of stressors in your life outside of work, many agencies have implemented protocols to help their employees cope with stress, process traumatic incidents, and reach out to professionals when needed. Many departments utilize critical incident stress debriefings (CISD) to help process trauma early before it develops into PTSD. Addressing issues at the organizational level can do wonders in preventing burnout. By proactively making changes in management, developing programs to recognize burnout, and providing treatment for burnout management can help many of their employees.

An additional organization resource is an app called Lighthouse Health and Wellness which is an app that provides resources and tools to support first responder health and wellness. It is one of many apps targeted at first responder well being. Lighthouse Health and Wellness provides a variety of resources targeted at all aspects of health and wellness. It has resources for physical fitness and health, financial fitness, substance use and addiction, peer support, chaplains, training opportunities, and personal development. If your health and wellness committee at your organization is not aware of the app, be sure to share it with them. If you do not have a health and wellness committee at your organization, start one.

In addition to agency wide stress reduction tactics and burnout prevention first responders should incorporate a variety of strategies into their lives to help reduce stress and prevent burnout. Some of these strategies include:

Practicing mindfulness through meditation or yoga
Maintaining a consistent exercise routine
Prioritizing sleep
Talking to supervisors and family members when they start experiencing burnout
Developing hobbies to help promote a positive work-life balance
Seek additional support through peer groups, family members, or mental health professionals
Set achievable professional and personal goals for yourself
Take time to disconnect from the job though turning off your pager when your off duty or use your hard earned PTO
Prioritize your time off

So you are feeling burnt out, what comes next?

We have listed many strategies for reducing stress and preventing burnout, but what happens if you are already experiencing burnout? What do you do next? Where do you go for help? An easy way to treat burnout is to use the 3 R’s, recognize, reverse, and reliance. We have talked about how to recognize burnout and now we will discuss how to reverse it. The most effective way to reverse burnout is by seeking support and managing stress. Support may look like joining a peer support group, going to AA or NA meetings if substance abuse is a concern for you, and an additional support method is by seeking professional help through therapy. Going to therapy not only provides social support for your burnout but it can also be used to help develop techniques for stress management. Often the stresses on the job cannot be prevented, but tactics for how to process the stresses you encounter on the job can be learned in therapy. Therapy can also be used to help manage stress in your personal life outside of work. If you are feeling stressed in your personal life it can bleed over into your work life, just like work stress can bleed into your personal life.

An additional step for reversing burnout is taking time off. It may feel weird to use your PTO and not go on vacation, but sometimes using your PTO to sit at home and just relax is what you need to reverse some of that burnout. When you take that step back from the job, really evaluate what parts of your job are leading to burnout. Is it your call volume? Is it the demographics of your service area? Is it your partner? Once you have determined where the burnout is likely coming from can you make any changes to reduce that stress in that area? Maybe you can switch to a different station, or request a new partner? Maybe some time off from work is all you need to debrief.

Do not be afraid to consult with your supervisor about what types of stressors you are facing, and chances are if you are experiencing organizational level burnout your supervisor will have been faced with similar complaints and conversations with other coworkers. Use some time away from work to evaluate your routines at work and outside of work. What can be tweaked to improve your stress management in your routines?

The Third R: Resilience

Resilience is the ability to recover from stress and adversity. People who have high levels of resilience bounce back emotionally and mentally from setbacks, like traumatic calls or high stress situations. Resilience provides protection from PTSD and acute trauma responses. Resilient people process what happened and cope in HEALTHY ways. Building resilience is something everyone should practice, even if they already feel like they have good coping mechanisms and low levels of stress. Having that resilience buffer in place is important if you are ever experiencing a situation you do not know how to handle. There are many ways for an individual to build resilience, some include…

Foster an optimistic mindset
Maintain the ability to stay balanced and manage difficult emotions and experiences
Maintain a sense of safety and security in your home and work
Have a strong social support system
Build a self-care plan that addresses the six key areas of life that are critical to health and wellbeing:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Psychological
- Spiritual
- Interpersonal relationships
- Professionalism

In addition to individual tactics for building resilience, organizations can foster an environment that supports wellness and resilience through…

Offering opportunities for connection among employees
Support good physical health
Foster positivity
Help employees adapt to changes
Empower employees to identify solutions

If you are a first responder and you feel like you need additional support in your mental wellness journey from a trained therapist you can self schedule an in-person or virtual therapy session at the Center for Growth by calling (215) 922- LOVE (5683) x 100.

Our Guarantee: If after your first session you are not sold that you are working with the right therapist, do not hesitate to call our intake line at 215 922 5683 x 100 or Alex at (267) 324-9564 and ask to be rescheduled with another therapist. The choice of how you want to proceed is yours. Our only goal is to support you in becoming the best you possible.

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