Burnout in Music Therapists: Work, Individual, and Social Factors

Music therapists work in a range of settings that may evoke higher than normal levels of professional stress. Furthermore, demographic, psychosocial, and environmental factors in these work settings may create levels of stress that actually lead to burnout (Youngshin, 2012). In addition to common experiences of caring for others (e.g., Dewe, 1989), Youngshin (2012) outlined several factors experienced by music therapists that may generate additional workplace stress. These include therapist age, work experience, workload, role conflict/ ambiguity, and personal characteristics. This literature review outlines definitions and descriptions of burnout and compas- sion fatigue, and related work, individual, and social factors contributing to burnout to the profession of music therapy.Burnout and Compassion FatigueBurnoutDefinition. Keidel (2002) defined burnout as "a syndrome of physical exhaustion including a negative self-concept, nega- tive job attitude and loss of concern and feelings'' (p. 200). Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996) describe burnout as a "syndrome of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and a sense of low personal accomplishment that leads to decreased effectiveness at work'' (p. 358). Causes of burnout. Keidel (2002) addressed several categories of factors that cause burnout and compassion fatigue among hospice caregivers:1. Personal characteristics of the patient care staff, patient, and primary caregiver. These included culture, race, sex, sexual orientation, age, stage of illness, and education, which challenge a caregiver's views of suffering, death, and dying.2. Societal influences. The contrast between the hospice recognizing that a comfortable death for a terminally ill patient is a success, and society's perception of death as medical failure.3. Problems with the healthcare system. Numerous regu- lations, insurance problems, and excessive paper work, all consume staff time and energy, leaving less available for direct patient care.4. Institutional Problems. Short staffing and mandatory overtime.5. Problems with the nursing system. Job related tasks such as working with dying patients and distraught family members are uncomfortable and often stressful tasks that are presented as "normal'' by the institution.6. Problems with the hospice system. Administrative stresses such as financial pressure, tensions in staff interactions and lack of support may cause feelings of isolation or lack of control over one's working environment.7. Stresses related to patient's family. Families may have complicating factors such as depression, family mem- bers who do not get along, or may differ on issues such as healthcare decisions. (pp. 201-202)In reviewing these categories, there are a number of parallels that apply to music therapists. Undeniably a music therapist's ability to provide care and compassion will be affected by these seven factors. Though the literature on burnout is more developed for professions such as nursing, this topic is significant for music therapists as well because professional and/or personal burnout are real possibilities as this paper demonstrates.Niven (2000) examines three categories of burnout factors for their validity, applicability, and generalization to music therapists. The categories include work, individual, and social factors (see Table 1 for detailed description of each category). Stages of burnout. Gorkin (2012) outlined four stages of burnout namely: physical, mental, and emotional exhaus- tion; shame and doubt; cynicism and callousness; and failure, helplessness, and crisis. It is important for music therapists to recognize what stage they may be at in order to prevent themselves from reaching a point where conse- quences are critical.Compassion FatigueCompassion fatigue is another type of negative outcome associated with stress, frustration, and dissatisfaction at work. …