addressing burn-out

[quilterbcathy 0]

Just wondering... have you addressed this subject in any past posts? I LOVE what I do, and my administrator says i have found my nitch. I hear other AD's saying they do their newsletters at home (for lack of computer, help, time, whatever), they wear many hats in addition to that of Activity Director (I do too), and that their family life is suffering (I've heard this from several people).

I'd just like to say, please be careful! For one, it's too easy for our Administrators to take advantage of us, we see it as a calling, they have no clue so often that we work as hard or harder than many others in the facility. Two, if you have a family, please find a way to nurture that part of your life, if not, take care of yourself. We are no good to our residents if we are burning the candles at every end. My residents who are happiest for the most part are those whose families are close and loving. I have two girls still at home - one is about to graduate from HS in June and the other is almost 10 - a solid pre-teen - they still need nurturing and teaching. I come home many a night tired, tempted to carry work home, and there is someone who needs to talk, picked up from a friends, playing in a school concert, needing to sit down to dinner or even just learn how to do something new, like helping to cook dinner. I often get to bed late. Several nights ago I was going strong on this schedule, got on a chair to change the battery in the smoke detector (I didn't want to wake my husband as he had had several sleepless nights not feeling well, and had just gone to sleep). The detector was beeping in my youngest daughter's room...any way, fatigue and not thinking well, I replaced the battery but found a little plug with wires, struggling with it, I saw a spark and next thing I knew I was on the floor with my knee twisted the wrong way. Fortunately it appears to be just a bad sprain. When I called in to work the tone of my otherwise wonderful administrator was along the lines of "what were you thinking to be so careless as to do something that might cause an accident... My Administrator has been sick with something ever since I started. She is THE RN, THE MDS specialist, THE payroll person, THE administrator, etc... she has no family but is still not taking care of herself.

So I don't take my work home. I get done what I can, when I am on the clock I give it my all.

Our residents need us, but they need us healthy and whole and so do we. Maybe the newsletter won't get done. Maybe a volunteer will do it (so what if they can't do it as well?, life goes on). I can tell you right now, my Cinco de Mayo plans at the facility are probably not happening as I'd like. The tabletop cooking probably didn't happen, as I never made it to the grocery store, and if my 21 yr old volunteer stayed on, she likely didn't worry about it. Not much I could do about it. If this is killing your family life or your marriage, if you are working your butt off and the Administrator is treating you badly... we need to talk about it. We won't last long otherwise in the business. Just some thoughts. The pain meds must be kicking in.

 

Cathy

[trixiedg 0]

You are right on target! Unfortunately I am one of those who takes it home. I think there could be 16 hours in my work day and it would not be enough. My office is at the other end of the building so I have to pass just about everybody to get there and there is always half a dozen people calling my name wanting something. Most of the time when I leave my office to get a chart to do a progress note, I am gone for more than an hour and by then it's time to do something else. I am the social worker and the activity director so I have twice the paperwork and responsibility. I am also in the process of taking a MEPAP home study course. Thank God for my assistant. There is no way I could do it without her. My administrator keeps telling me not to take work home because she does not want me to get burned out but I guess I just have not figured out how to get it all done a work week. Maybe I will sooner or later. I love my resdents and I love my job. Doing activities is what I have wanted to do for years. There is nothing better than seeing the smiles on my residents faces because they are happy and enjoying themselves and each other. I am about to go on a much needed vacation in a week and I plan to do alot of unwinding, hopefully while fishing and hiking in the mountains. Well, I'm glad I got all of that off of my mind. Sometimes it helps just to put it in words.