Extinguishing Burnout in Medical and Graduate Schools
Elaine Y. Chu (DPM 2024)
Maddi M. Mendoza, MA (PhD 2025)
Mental exhaustion, loss of motivation, and self-doubt are no strangers to medical or graduate school students. Many individuals come into higher education already expecting to endure the struggles necessary to graduate and attain their lofty career goals. While trading relaxation for academic success can be a noble undertaking, being in this high-stress environment without the proper work-life balance and mindset can have dire consequences. These settings often facilitate a culture that links productivity and academic achievement to self-worth, making it easy for students to internalize these beliefs and cause them to overwork themselves. This is a slippery slope that can lead to symptoms of burnout and chronic stress which continue to be increasing concerns among students of higher learning education.
Our names are Elaine Chu and Maddi Mendoza and we are both students who are constantly re-discovering what it means to have a healthy work-life balance. Currently, Elaine is a second year Doctor of Podiatric Medicine student at Western University of Health Sciences and Maddi is a third year Clinical Psychology PhD student at Loma Linda University. While not everyone at these schools have experienced mental health disorders, there is a noticeable trend that many students will experience high levels of prolonged stress and burnout. Time is one factor that contributes to the severity of stress. After finishing four years of undergraduate school, we both took one year off to shadow doctors and conduct research. This did not leave us with a lot of time to rest before Elaine began medical school (which is four years with an additional three years of residency) and Maddi began grad school (which is six years with two years of postdoctorate). We have been struggling through the pressures of academia most of our lives and have had well-beyond our fair share of breakdowns.
So, if you have ever felt emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted, you are not alone. This feeling is also known as burnout and occurs when people feel emotionally drained, are unable to meet constant demands, and lose interest and motivation. Many factors can contribute to burnout including work overload, lack of rest, and pressure to perform. These pressures may come from family expectations or pressures from friends and classmates around you to excel and get ahead.
While burnout may be a result of excessive stress, they are not the same. Burnout is the body’s response to putting too much effort into something without taking in what you require to restore yourself. It’s mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion that leads to decreased motivation in performing tasks. On the other hand, stress involves too many pressures that demand too much from you either physically or psychologically. Stressed people though can still see a light at the end of the tunnel, they just often can't figure a way to get to it. Stress can be a normal daily experience, but burnout is a serious consequence of stress accumulation. However, people who are burnt out often don’t see any hope of positive change in their situation. Burnout not only reduces productivity but also leaves you feeling helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing more to give. The negative effects of burnout contaminate every area of life including home, work, and social domains. Burnout can also cause long-term changes to your body that make you vulnerable to illnesses like colds and flu. Because of its many consequences, it’s important to deal with burnout right away.
Burnout is prevalent among students who face ongoing stress or frustration with no time to relax and recharge. In theory, preventing and mitigating the effects of burnout seem intuitive. However, implementing healthy practices on a daily basis can be more difficult and important than meets the eye. Through our journey in academia, we have picked up a few techniques that have helped us maintain our sanity.
First, we have found that it is important to accept that there are limitations to our time and energy. Understanding our personal priorities has made it much easier to maintain a work-life balance. Knowing what we value has helped us really hone in on our passions and avoid saying yes to all opportunities that come our way. For Elaine, this meant joining clubs, but limiting her leadership roles to only a couple organizations that she felt passionate about.
Secondly, we try to set-aside time for ourselves to do something that’s purely for our enjoyment. This has been one of the most difficult challenges for us, especially because setting aside leisure time can feel like we are wasting time and falling behind. However, we do our best to give ourselves pockets of relief throughout the week. For Maddi, that came in the form of gardening. It gave her a chance to feel productive, while focusing on the process of it and the joy that comes from that rather than the outcome.
Next, it is important to maintain proper mental health hygiene. Getting a proper sleep, exercise, and nutrition routine is important to preventing burnout. We like to cook meals at home, stretch in between classes, and do some form of exercise a few days of the week. Keeping this routine can seem even more draining, especially when McDonalds is down the street and Netflix is waiting at home. However, it eventually gets easier and becomes second nature like brushing your teeth or washing your hands.
Lastly, being kind to ourselves has been one of the cheesiest, but most invaluable techniques that not only has helped us prevent burnout, but has given us more fulfillment in academia. It took many years of practice for us to not be so hard on ourselves for bad grades and mistakes. Although it still happens, practicing this mindset has definitely made the failures we experience a lot more palatable.
We are both still navigating this path on our mental health as students, and sometimes find ourselves reverting into our old ways. While overwhelming academic responsibilities may cause burnout relapse, we have found that there has always been hope to find our way back. Whether you have recently entered high level education or have graduated long ago, your self-worth is not contingent on your contribution to society. It’s easy to get carried away in work, especially with the high standards we set for ourselves. If you take away anything from this entry, let it be this: you are not your resume, you create your own definition of success, and you deserve time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
elaine.chu97@yahoo.com
maddimmendoza@gmail.com