Module 5 – Personal (Psychological and Social) Demands Contributing to Public Health Worker Burnout
Module 5
Overview and Learning Objectives
In this module, we focus on more personal demands that can be experienced psychologically and socially. After reviewing this module, you should be able to:
- Identify and describe common psychological factors that public health workers can experience as demands.
- Identify and describe common social factors that public health workers can experience as demands.
- Explain how psychosocial demands can contribute to burnout.
Questions for Reflection and/or Discussion with your Team
- What are some of the most challenging psychosocial demands you face as a supervisor? What are the most challenging psychosocial demands for the workers you supervise?
- How do you notice psychosocial demands affect you in your work and outside of work?
- How are psychosocial demands both a personal and organizational issue to address? What is a supervisor’s responsibility in helping to address more personal demands?
- As a supervisor, how could you try to minimize psychosocial demands experienced by workers in your team?
Recommended Readings and Resources
- This Harvard Business Review article by leading workplace mistreatment researchers, The Price of Incivility, explores the costs of incivility in the workplace.
- If you want to learn more about addressing workplace mistreatment, including violence and aggression that can come from patients/clients/community members, view this NIOSH page about workplace violence. NIOSH also has a violence prevention training for nurses with applications for broader areas of community health services.
- Learn more about “imposter syndrome” as a form of self-doubt that can affect workers at many stages of their career. This article from the American Psychological Association provides some background and tips for navigating imposter syndrome.
- Take some time to review NIOSH’s Total Worker Health® approach. How does managing psychosocial demands align with a Total Worker Health® strategy?