Soul Care for Healthcare workers
This year, we will be featuring a series of posts on the topic of soul care. This is the first in the series. For more resources on soul care, check out our recommended resources page at www.undercurrentsministries.com.
Within healthcare circles, the topic of burnout is pretty popular. Burnout levels were high pre-pandemic, but in our current post-COVID world, it seems as though burnout, especially amongst healthcare workers, is at an all-time high. Beyond the general consensus of burnout amongst peers, there are numerous recent studies that also point to the prevalence of burnout in the healthcare sector. A recent survey by Elsiveir projected that almost half of the healthcare workforce plans to leave the system within the next five to seven years, largely due to burnout and contributing factors.
So, we sit here, on the brink of a precipice. We find ourselves in a system that is incredibly dysfunctional and without a clear course for reform or any hope of true change. Many of us are weary to the point of burnout and dream of alternate careers. The passions of our calling have not merely cooled, but hardened into shells of preservation. If we can just survive this week, this shift, this assignment… From this vantage point, the outlook for healthcare and those who find themselves working in this broken system, seems bleak.
If you’re like me, you may have noticed your employer or healthcare system attempt (perhaps rather poorly) to address this problem of burnout and disillusionment. The current buzzwords many throw around are often tied to “mental health.” There is a push to support or improve mental health in healthcare workers, so that they will not succumb to disillusionment and burnout, and subsequently leave the system. So we attend trainings and mandatory education to learn about the importance of supporting our mental health. The thing is, none of it works.
Can I propose something radical? What if the root of the problem isn't poor mental health? What if the root of our systemic hopelessness is a lack of caring for our souls?
Mental health is defined as a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. In other words, how someone thinks, feels, and behaves. My overwhelming sense of burnout and disillusionment did not originate from a dysfunctional way of thinking, feeling, or behaving. The issue came before all that. Maybe it’s the prolonged stress of the unit I work for. Or perhaps it’s the fact that though full-time for me is 3 12-hour shifts, I have also worked almost every single day off, and I’m utterly exhausted.
One of the more difficult aspects of working in healthcare is the struggle to disconnect, to leave work at work and not carry the burdens of the day into the rest of our lives. We are all told not to do it, but when your currency is in lives and your business wrapped up in broken people, how exactly does one truly disconnect? How do you cut off your mind from reliving the trauma of today without walling off your heart?
You see, our issue of burnout is so much deeper than poor thinking, feeling, or behaving. Our real issue is a poor way of functioning. We have been taught to function in a way that will ultimately choke the life out of our souls. Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” We might make more money, have more credentials, or even have achieved honor and prestige, but at what cost?
Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Friends, we are weary and heavy laden. Jesus is speaking to us. He is inviting us into a better way. And if we follow his lead, he will guide us into a pattern of life that is life-giving to our souls, even when working in toxic, stressful, and demanding environments.
This way of living and functioning is not the way of the world. You will look different from your peers. You may even have to lay some of your own agendas down. However, if we follow Christ’s model of living, we will find that he is extending an invitation to you, inviting you into the deep, rich, limitless hospitality and provision of the LORD. This is a special place where heaven and earth meet, where hearts abide, and souls find rest. This is a slower pace of life and an adventure into alternate priorities and achievements.
Let go of the empty self-help and the fruitless pursuit of mental well-being. Instead, respond to Christ’s invitation into soul care.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:34-35 ESV
