Burnout as an existential deficiency - lived experiences of burnout sufferers

Aiming at a deeper and existential understanding of burnout, by looking especially at the patterns of health, suffering and expressions of understanding of life in a longitudinal perspective, qualitative data from 18 Swedish women and men were analysed. Burnout as an illness has been subject to constant questioning during its incidence in western societies. Yet it is generally agreed that people afflicted by burnout experience huge problems and suffering. Data from interviews face to face, telephone follow-up interviewing during 1 year and e-mail interview dialogues were collected. With a nursing science perspective in which health and suffering are basic concepts, an interpretive analysis revealed signs of existential deficiencies in the lived experience of the people afflicted. The images of the patterns of lived experience elucidated reveal a discord between the people and their work, a blindness towards their own actions, bodily illness as signs of burnout, experiencing a collapse as a 'crossroad', secondary suffering related to the social system and a struggle towards a way out. Our interpretation reveals assumptions concerning three levels of life: actions, values and universal existence, which is somewhat different from previous studies. Unless a person is in contact with these three dimensions, he/she seems to find it difficult to maintain health in his/her encounters with life. Implications for health care are existential interest on the part of caregivers and understanding of life as signs of universal values. Patients''shut off' and restrained longings understood as signs of 'darkness' in their understanding of life may induce caring acts on the part of caregivers that offer patients an opening and a glimpse of what it might be like to find health in the midst of their suffering. The caregivers' own natural light of understanding of life can then work as a caring component.