I was struck by a thought today: as much as I yak about Burnout or Compassion Fatigue or whatever it is that plagues me, the root of my frustrations is dealing with bullshit day in and day out. Bullshit has been defined as anything that has a lack of concern for the truth; not a lie per se, not an untruth, but a statement that is unconcerned with any accurate portrayal of reality.
Almost everything I deal with is bullshit. Doctors write bullshit orders that have nothing to do with the illnesses of their patients. Nurses make bullshit calls based on assessments they haven’t really done. RTs make bullshit complaints about petty things. Patients bullshit us all the time.
The biggest and most prolific of all bullshitters, though, has to be The Administration, whose job it is to spool out endless steaming piles of bullshit. Policies and procedures that make it harder to do our jobs well are sprinkled with words like quality and compassion and care. This sounds nice but it is pure, unadulterated bullshit: the policies in question are designed to make things more cost-effective, not to add any dimension of humanity to our care. The Administration wants us to be assembly-line workers, not human beings taking care of other human beings. But they try to hide it behind a strategic wall of bullshit.
I, for one, have had enough of it. I can see through the bullshit, and I am sick and tired of it. THAT is the root cause of my problems.
Therefore, I diagnose myself–and possibly a million other healthcare workers–with Bullshit Burnout. If you read this blog, chances are you may have Bullshit Burnout yourself.
Do you find yourself rolling your eyes when administrators or managers speak?
Do you find yourself wondering if you’re the only one who hasn’t ingested the corporate kool-aid?
Do you find yourself skeptical of all things told to you by any patient, especially by any patient family member?
Do you find yourself doubtful of the capabilities of your co-workers?
If you answered “yes” to more than one or two of these questions, I suspect that you, too, suffer from Bullshit Burnout. The only known cure at the moment is large quantities of time off mixed with a fair amount of ethyl alcohol. What a pity.
I was struck by a thought today: as much as I yak about Burnout or Compassion Fatigue or whatever it is that plagues me, the root of my frustrations is dealing with bullshit day in and day out. Bullshit has been defined as anything that has a lack of concern for the truth; not a lie per se, not an untruth, but a statement that is unconcerned with any accurate portrayal of reality.
Almost everything I deal with is bullshit. Doctors write bullshit orders that have nothing to do with the illnesses of their patients. Nurses make bullshit calls based on assessments they haven’t really done. RTs make bullshit complaints about petty things. Patients bullshit us all the time.
The biggest and most prolific of all bullshitters, though, has to be The Administration, whose job it is to spool out endless steaming piles of bullshit. Policies and procedures that make it harder to do our jobs well are sprinkled with words like quality and compassion and care. This sounds nice but it is pure, unadulterated bullshit: the policies in question are designed to make things more cost-effective, not to add any dimension of humanity to our care. The Administration wants us to be assembly-line workers, not human beings taking care of other human beings. But they try to hide it behind a strategic wall of bullshit.
I, for one, have had enough of it. I can see through the bullshit, and I am sick and tired of it. THAT is the root cause of my problems.
Therefore, I diagnose myself–and possibly a million other healthcare workers–with Bullshit Burnout. If you read this blog, chances are you may have Bullshit Burnout yourself.
If you answered “yes” to more than one or two of these questions, I suspect that you, too, suffer from Bullshit Burnout. The only known cure at the moment is large quantities of time off mixed with a fair amount of ethyl alcohol. What a pity.