Burnt out working in healthcare/Is the grass greener?

[10SNE1]

I have been employed in healthcare as a provider for about 15 years in a typically low-stress position; however, ever since the pandemic, I am just feeling burnt out. The reason for feeling burnt out is that our office is constantly busy, and it feels like a tornado takes me in and spits me out every day. There is a constant merry-go-round of unskilled co-workers and lack of sufficient help. In the span of my career, I have seen people go from giving a 2 weeks notice to giving zero notice at all and just not showing up ever again. (I was raised to respectfully give adequate notice if I was changing jobs, so it is hard for me to see others not do the same.) It would be easy to assume that changing offices/jobs would be the answer; however, I just get this feeling that the same thing is happening everywhere else. That the grass would NOT be greener in another office. I feel jealousy toward others who are able to work from home, and I sometimes daydream about doing a different job entirely - such as elementary or middle school teaching in a science-related subject. But again, I tell myself that the grass is not greener. So here I am, stuck in an endless cycle of hating going to work because of lack of support and being overloaded. I like my job and would continue to like it if I had enough support staff, but it just feels like I'll never have that. Does anyone have a similar situation and any advice? Has anyone changed careers entirely and have any feedback from doing that?

[Freedomin5]

Yup.

I was in a similar situation about five years ago. I ended up quitting and getting a new job. The new job had its own set of problems, but it had a more supportive management structure. The idea is to look for options, so you don’t feel as stuck.

Who knows? The grass may be greener, or a different shade of green that’s more palatable to you. But you’ll never know unless you go looking. There may be better run companies out there that provide sufficient support staff.

Also, is it possible for you to offer your services via an online platform? So for example, if you’re a nurse, do telehealth. If you’re a psychotherapist, offer online therapy, etc.

[fuzzy math]

I'm a burnt out hospital worker. I quit my horrific job and took a new job 1800 miles away for a better lifestyle. Its always hard to evaluate whether a position is going to be good or not, there's so much turmoil in the field and a great situation can turn sour pretty quickly. My sister is a clinic based provider. She complains about the constant turnover of MAs and what it does to her productivity and hours. Healthcare admin seems to just burn and churn low paid workers due to blindly thinking that they're low paid positions. The ripples affect providers however.

I've thought about teaching science too. Its kind of a dream having a normal schedule that follows my kids, no weekends / nights / holidays. Then I think about the reduction in pay and whether I'd be miserable at work thinking about how I'm earning a fraction of what I used to earn. I also have school aged kids and the turnover in the teacher field has been wild the past 3 -5 years. They're experiencing the same crunch that's ruining healthcare. So its a mixed bag... after you find yourself unable to continue in your current field, its probably an option worth exploring. I'm not sure the grass is greener though.

[fuzzy math]

I think the other thing you have an option to do if you have a contract that comes up for renewal is to ask for a guaranteed level of staff - 2 MAs and 1 RN guaranteed or whatever. Like you will not work if not given that. And that you will only see X amount of patients, and stay for X amount of hours. If your support staff quits, you stop seeing patients to get caught up on all the stuff you're behind on. I don't know how realistic that is, I've been trying to tell my sister all that. She's RVU based though and really against it.

[Cranky]

If you think education is a greener pasture these days, stop that thought immediately.

[BurtMacklin]

If you think education is a greener pasture these days, stop that thought immediately.

Yep

[NV Teacher]

If you think education is a greener pasture these days, stop that thought immediately.

As I started reading the original post I was thinking that it sounded just like my teaching job.  A daily tornado that takes me in and spits me out with insufficient help probably describes the vast majority of teacher’s lives today.

[IslandFiGirl]

I don't work in healthcare but experienced burnout for sure. Here's how I see it...I worked in a job that I loved for 15 years and over time got better and better at it and had more and more responsibilities added to my work load. By the time I burnt out, I was doing so much work, so many jobs that I should have been paid for 2-3 people's jobs. I feel like once you get to that point where everyone dumps piles of work on you, there's no going back, no cutting back. Your co-workers know you know how to do everything and you become the go-to person. I woke up one day and realized despite the many suggestions I had for improving things, nothing was ever going to change. I left (almost 3 years ago) and now when I see the one friend I have left there, she tells me that literally nothing has changed and the person who took over my role has come and gone and now they have "filled" that role with someone temporarily who gets no extra pay for it. Screw that!

That being said, I took a 3 year break from working and started a new job a few weeks ago and it's kind of nice being new because the expectations of me are pretty low right now. Is the grass greener? I don't know...I guess, yes? Because the stress that I was feeling from the last job is gone. Of course there is new, different stress at the new job, but I doubt I'll allow myself to stay so long that I get burnt out again.

I'll say this...don't be afraid of change, you can probably adapt to much more than you think you can and if you're feeling like you want to do something different, give it a try. Even if it's not the greatest thing in the world, sometimes just doing something different and maybe challenging can build character. Ask me how I know. :)

[10SNE1]

If you think education is a greener pasture these days, stop that thought immediately.

As I started reading the original post I was thinking that it sounded just like my teaching job.  A daily tornado that takes me in and spits me out with insufficient help probably describes the vast majority of teacher’s lives today.

That's exactly what I was wondering, thanks for confirming this. Just had a gut feeling it may be happening across many careers, not just healthcare.

[poetdereves]

I work in healthcare as well and ended up in a position where I was starting to burn out as job responsibility significantly increased, but staffing was becoming a terrible issue. We lost most of our knowledgable, long-term, experienced staff during covid and never caught up. I thought it was the healthcare field in general and started to look elsewhere (medical sales, healthcare IT, etc) for jobs. I ended up finding a great spot still dealing directly with patients, working half the amount of time I used to, and actually making a bit more money. I am on a fully staffed team with intelligent colleagues in the niche field I am in. I love what I am doing now.

The grass isn't always greener, but it isn't the whole field that sucks. I thought that might be the case, but most people I deal with now are really satisfied with their career.

On another note, education is definitely not the way to go unless you want all the same BS with a lot less pay. I know more educators that have left their field in the past three years than healthcare workers.

[Freedomin5]

Education could work out well -- like any other field, it's not the whole field that sucks. DH makes about $120K a year + benefits as a teacher. He has about 10 years of teaching experience and isn't at a top school. At a top school, you're probably taking home around the same amount ($120K + benefits) as a new teacher with about 3-5 years of experience.

Of course, there are trade-offs - like working in a country with different living standards and where you may not speak the language, so it really just depends on finding something that fits your personality.

[CNM]

You might want to look at the medico-legal field -- law firms hire healthcare workers (usually nurses) to assist with medical record & medical billing reviews in personal injury or medical malpractice cases.