As summer arrives and the days grow warmer, many of us will look forward to a summer holiday, whether at home or abroad. However, many healthcare professionals suffer from burnout, which prevents them from switching off, or makes them feel as if they can't afford to take time off at all. Burnout is a syndrome characterised by emotional exhaustion that results in depersonalisation and decreased personal accomplishment at work. It occurs when emotionally exhausted healthcare professionals become overwhelmed by work to the point of feeling fatigued, unable to face the demands of their role, and unable to engage with others (Lyndon, 2016). Burnout is a problem in many sectors of medicine, owing to the pressures of handling many patients and a heavy and highly critical workload.
Many of us think of burnout as a contemporary phenomenon, brought about by our fast-paced lifestyles and the information overload we experience courtesy of the media, both mainstream and social. However, Anna Katharina Schaffner, literary critic and medical historian at the University of Kent, claims that historical evidence suggests that this may not be the case. During her extensive research, Schaffner found that people have been suffering from extreme fatigue for centuries (Schaffner, 2016). Around the time of the birth of modern medicine, doctors began to diagnose the symptoms of fatigue as ‘neurasthenia,’ believing that these symptoms were a result of weak nerves allowing for the dissipation of energy. Intellectual figures such as Oscar Wilde, Charles Darwin and Virginia Woolf were all diagnosed with neurasthenia. Interestingly enough, doctors of the time blamed it on the social changes of the idustrial revolution, just as many people today attribute burnout to our own rapidly-changing society.
The study of the causes and effects of burnout is new, and the literature that exists mainly focuses on hospital settings, rather than private practices. As such, the available evidence is only somewhat applicable to aesthetic practice, and it is difficult to determine how prevalent burnout is within this sector. However, although aesthetic practitioners treat patients in ways that are different to other healthcare professionals, the fact remains that aesthetic practitioners shoulder huge responsibility in their work with patients. Not only must they consider the patient's wellbeing, and whether this will be improved by providing treatment, they are also aware of the risks of treatment and what could go wrong. It follows that this is a role that involves a great deal of responsibility, and one that can be potentially very stressful, even for the most experienced practitioners. Add to this the fact that many aesthetic practitioners own and run their own businesses, and the pressure continues to build.
The importance of the personal health and wellbeing of healthcare professionals in any sector of medicine can not be overstated, and taking time off to relax this summer should be a priority. A healthy work–life balance is essential, and should be promoted within all workplaces, big and small.