Field teams, a pillar of the health sector, work in a demanding, fast-paced and often tense job. Nurses, nursing assistants, service agents or stretcher-bearers are on the front line, facing suffering, emergency, physical and emotional fatigue.
In this context, the risk of professional burnout is very real, with impacts on their health, but also on the quality of care and the stability of your institutions.
To maintain their commitment and well-being, it becomes strategic to act on several fronts: fcontinuing education, better recognition, new managerial practices, more human organization...
Overview of concrete levers to prevent burnout in your teams.
Decryption
Les field teams in the health sector are facing a level of physical and emotional intensity that is rarely equalled. Intense stress situations, emergency management, and ongoing exposure to suffering impose work rhythms that, in the long run, can lead to exhaustion.
To prevent this overload from becoming a burnout, several levers exist and can make a major difference:
- Create spaces for exchange and listening to strengthen the collective and break the isolation.
- Train your employees to better manage stress and emotions, so they can take a step back from the pressure.
- Organize work to preserve rest time, and thus allow each member of the team to recharge their batteries effectively.
- Valuing daily work, in order to reinforce the feeling of usefulness and involvement of caregivers.
- Involve caregivers in decisions that affect them, by promoting a culture of listening and collaboration.
Preventing burnout is not adding an administrative layer, but rethinking how you support your teams on a daily basis.
By focusing on work organization, recognition and training, you are building a sustainable and respectful work environment. This allows caregivers to better manage the pressure and maintain their motivation, to provide quality care while maintaining their well-being.
Why are health field teams particularly at risk of exhaustion?
When a vocation is no longer enough to keep up, the risk of exhaustion becomes very real. In health institutions, Field teams face a professional intensity that is difficult to maintain in the long term. Several factors increase their vulnerability to burnout:
- A significant physical and emotional burden
Intensive care, pain management, end-of-life support... Caregivers are constantly confronted with emotionally heavy situations. Their body is also constantly stressed: prolonged standing, handling, repeated actions. - Staggered and unpredictable schedules
Night work, weekends, last-minute replacements: the pace of work disrupts reference points and weighs on personal life. - A lack of recognition
Many employees feel that their work goes unnoticed. Little listening, few positive feedback, and a low valuation of the efforts made on a daily basis. - Recurring understaffing
Unreplaced absences or delayed hires cause chronic overload. This fuels stress, isolation, and frustration.
What are the warning signs of burnout?
Before burnout, the body and mind send signals. You still have to know how to recognize them.
Among field employees, these signs often appear gradually, until they become disabling for themselves, for their colleagues... and for the quality of care.
- Persistent fatigue
Even after a period of rest, the feeling of exhaustion does not go away. Energy is lacking from the start of the day. - A loss of motivation and enthusiasm
The usual missions are becoming cumbersome. The pleasure at work is fading away, sometimes even replaced by apprehension. - Mood swings or irritability
Tensions are rising more quickly, reactions are becoming more intense, and exchanges with colleagues are becoming tense. - A decrease in concentration and performance
Mistakes are multiplying, so are oversights. Attention is drawn more quickly, including in technical gestures. - Recurrent physical disorders
Sleep problems, muscle pain, headaches, digestive disorders... The body is sounding the alarm. - A downturn in professional relationships
Less desire to exchange, to participate in team life or to cooperate. Conflicts can occur where there was cohesion.
These numbers you need to know about the health sector
Recent data confirm the urgent need for action:
- 96% of caregivers report intense fatigue at work
- 85% evoke an imbalance between professional life and personal life
- 77.9% have already experienced burnout
- 71.3% are considering leaving the profession
- 54% feel a lack of recognition
What concrete actions can be taken to prevent this exhaustion?
Prevent professional burnout in your organization is not just a “one-off wellness workshop”. It is a set of levers to be activated, together and over time.
→ Training, organization, recognition, listening... each pillar counts in order to build a more serene and sustainable environment.
Train your teams to better manage stress
Offering your employees the keys to better understand the pressures of daily life means allowing them to last over time.
Short, practical formats that can easily be integrated into their schedule may be enough to:
- Understanding the mechanisms of stress and its effects
- Discover simple breathing or refocusing techniques
- Strengthen their mental posture in the face of tense situations
👉 The microlearning is particularly suitable for distributing this content without burdening schedules.
Rethinking work organization
A few well-targeted adjustments can significantly improve the daily lives of teams:
- Better balance the bearings to avoid exhausting sequences
- Ensuring strict compliance with rest periods
- Anticipate absences with more flexible planning
- Reduce solicitations outside of scheduled hours
A more humane organization starts with clear rules... and applied ones.
Creating safe spaces for speech
Talking about the experience already relieves some of the pressure. Offer your teams places and times where speech flows freely:
- Exchange groups supervised by a trained professional
- Regular supervision for the most exposed jobs
- Individual interviews focused on feelings, not only on performance
These moments strengthen cohesion, prevent tensions, and avoid isolation.
Recognizing the quality and value of the work done
Recognitions don't have to be spectacular to have an effect. But they have to be constant and sincere.
- Highlight the efforts made, especially after an intense period
- Give positive and constructive feedback
- Involve employees in decisions that concern them
- Valuing the small victories of daily life, not just the big results
To be seen, heard, recognized: a human need, including in the corridors of a hospital or nursing home.
What if training could make a difference?
Because prevention also involves learning, online training platforms (such as Beedeez 😉) can help institutions offer adapted content:
- Microlearning capsules on stress management
- Interactive modules on work organization
- On-demand resources to strengthen managerial skills
→ Accessible, short, engaging content that can be easily integrated into the daily life of caregivers.
These health institutions that have implemented effective prevention of burnout in the field
More and more establishments are choosing to act early to preserve their teams. And the results speak for themselves, both on well-being and on the quality of care.
- Bordeaux University Hospital has set up monthly discussion groups for caregivers in critical services. The result: a 25% decrease in sick leave due to exhaustion over one year.
- Natecia private hospital in Lyon has established a micro-training program for stress management, accessible on smartphone during breaks. 78% of trained employees say they are better equipped to deal with peaks of activity.
- In a Groupement Hospitalier de Bretagne, the reorganization of the schedules made it possible to limit last-minute substitutions. Absenteeism fell by 15% in six months.
- According to a study conducted by the National Observatory for the Quality of Life at Work, establishments that have implemented a systematic recognition system (regular feedback, team rituals) note a significant improvement in commitment and a reduction in turnover.
💡 These initiatives do not require heavy investments. They are based on active listening, organizational coherence and a real desire to change managerial practices.
