Professional burnout: a conceptual model

Professional burnout is a circumstance that can result from accumulated occupational stress among those who do caregiving work. The effects of burnout tend to be physiological, behavioral, psychological, spiritual and clinical in nature thus impacting individuals and human service systems. The term burnout was first coined by Dr. Herbert Freudenberger in the early 1970's and since that time burnout has been discussed extensively. The goal of this project was to develop my understanding of professional burnout, using my own experience as a social worker as the foundation for my inquiry. This project presents a conceptual model of burnout, resulting from the integration of the available literature on this topic, with my own professional experience. This model conceptualized the individual factors, including organizational and client variables, that can contribute to the risk for burnout among social workers, or other helping professionals. This project highlighted the interplay between individual and systemic variables pertinent to burnout and it suggested that there are both risk factors and protective factors that can be explored when assessing burnout. The conceptual model and the assessment tool illustrated in this project, provides social workers with a framework for discussing, preventing, assessing, and/or treating professional burnout.--Page ii.