Burnout in healthcare and public service is a major challenge that creates negative experiences for care providers and individuals receiving care alike. But is preventing burnout in healthcare even possible?
While preventing burnout entirely may be difficult, prevention strategies can reduce overall instances of burnout, and mitigate risks associated with it.
A study conducted by Embodied Labs in collaboration with St. John’s Home, a senior living facility, revealed how to reduce burnout and improve empathy among senior care providers. (If you’re interested in a deeper dive, we presented our findings in a webinar.)
Senior care is a high-stress environment, with care providers, family caregivers, and public servants facing daily challenges that can easily lead to burnout. Add the complexities of conditions like dementia, and the emotional and physical demands increase significantly.
There are ways to improve caregiver education, foster empathy, and reduce burnout—all of which can lead to better care for residents and greater job satisfaction for staff.
Here are seven tips that can help senior care organizations prevent burnout, navigate high-stress environments, and improve care for aging adults.
As experts in immersive workforce training for care providers, especially in senior care, we at Embodied Labs offer the following burnout prevention tips based on our experience. These tips can be applied to any caregiving role.
1. Strengthen Resilience and Reduce Burnout
Immersive training solutions, like what we offer at Embodied Labs, are powerful tools for strengthening resilience and reducing risk of care provider burnout.
The Embodied Labs approach puts care providers in the shoes of the people they care for, with first-person immersive simulations that reflect common life experiences. This allows care providers to experience challenging situations, such as receiving an end of life diagnosis, responding to irate family members, and unique behavioral manifestations in a safe and controlled environment. This enables staff to regulate their emotions, anticipate and respond to pressure, and effectively handle high-stress situations at work.
For instance, in the study with a senior care organization and Embodied Labs, Virtual Reality (VR) training made caregivers more aware of environmental factors, like noise and lighting, that can trigger agitation in dementia patients. By addressing these factors proactively, caregivers can prevent behavioral issues that might otherwise lead to burnout.
2. Prioritize Emotional Connection
Too often, senior care providers are trained in customer service techniques that focus on surface-level interactions, where staff feel pressured to pretend that everything is fine, even when it’s not. This kind of dissonance can lead to stress and burnout. Instead, training should focus on building authentic emotional connections between caregivers and residents.
Jill Vitale-Aussem, former President and CEO of the Eden Alternative points out the limitations of traditional customer service training: “Customer service can play a role, but it can’t be our go-to… It also often leads to what is called surface acting… Surface acting leads to stress, it leads to burnout, it leads to people quitting their jobs.”
By shifting the focus from transactional customer service to genuine, empathetic care, organizations can create a more emotionally fulfilling environment for both residents and staff. This approach reduces burnout by allowing caregivers to be their authentic selves and build meaningful relationships with those in their care.
3. Enhance Job Preparedness with XR - Virtual and Immersive Reality
Providing care during the aging process inevitably presents challenges for caregivers and care organizations. However, these challenges can be navigated more efficiently and effectively with better job preparedness.
Simple, traditional training can help. However, extended reality (XR) training can take that job preparedness to the next level. Extended reality utilizes Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) or Mixed Reality (MR) as immersive experiences to simulate real life situations in a structured learning environment. This allows for more impact in less time, especially in scenarios that are difficult to practice.
In one study, immersive learners were:
- 4 times faster to train than in the classroom.
- 275% more confident in applying skills learned after training.
- 3.75 times more emotionally connected to content than classroom learners.
These immersive simulations empower care providers to build a deeper understanding of the population they support, and develop more proactive care practices.
4. Use Immersive Training Tools to Foster Empathy
One of the most effective ways to build empathy in care providers is through immersive training tools, like the Virtual Reality (VR) experiences developed by us at Embodied Labs. These tools allow staff to step into the shoes of seniors living with dementia, experiencing firsthand the sensory overload and confusion that come with conditions like Alzheimer’s or Lewy body dementia.
With our Labs, learners build a mind-body connection through training. When you use your virtual hands and your brain perceives an accelerated lived experience, the memory is both stickier and more emotional.
As Carrie Cusker, Gerontologist and former Nurse Educator at St. John’s Home explains, “I’ve noticed the people who have the full experience—it leaves a mark on them in a way that no other training I’ve ever seen can do. It gives them a sense of this secret information that’s been shared with them. ‘Oh, I know what that’s like. I’ve experienced dementia.’”
Immersive training helps caregivers internalize the emotional and sensory challenges faced by residents, which leads to more compassionate and effective care. Seniors are individuals with complex needs, rather than just “patients” or “customers.” According to data from St. John’s Home, 79% of staff reported that their communication with residents positively changed after undergoing this type of training.
5. Make Training Hands-On and Engaging
Care providers are often busy and hands-on learners, which means traditional lecture-based training may not be the most effective approach. Instead, engaging and interactive training sessions that relate directly to their daily experiences are more likely to resonate and stick.
Mimi DeVinney, Dementia Care Specialist at St. John’s Home, emphasized that training needs to be relevant and engaging: “They need to be able to relate it to their everyday experiences. Flexibility is really nice… you can use [VR training] in so many different ways, with family members, for orientation, and even for marketing.”
Overall, 90% of participants at St. John’s Home, who went through immersive VR training, said that the training was more helpful than other forms of training, and 80% reported that it positively affected their day-to-day work.
By making training relatable and hands-on, organizations can ensure that caregivers are more likely to absorb and apply what they learn. This approach also keeps staff engaged, reducing the chances of burnout due to boredom or disconnection from the material.
6. Focus on Organizational Transformation, Not Just Personal Development
Training programs alone are not enough to drive lasting change. Truly sustainable change has three components: personal, organizational, and physical transformation.
For improvements in care to be sustainable, organizations are advised to align their job descriptions, performance metrics, and operational processes with the goals of emotional intelligence and person-centered care. This means that any personal transformation achieved through training must be supported by broader organizational transformation.
Jill Vitale-Aussem, explains this holistic approach: “There are three components to sustainable change: personal transformation, organizational transformation, and physical transformation… If you do that [personal transformation] and you don’t do the second part, which is organizational transformation, nothing happens.”
In addition, training that includes all staff - not just direct care - helps to build a shared perspective. This results in a community and culture with a heightened awareness and deeper understanding of those they care for.
Leaders play a crucial role in this process, not by mandating changes, but by engaging staff in the journey and helping them understand the need for it. Empowering staff to be part of the solution fosters a sense of ownership and reduces burnout by making the workplace feel more supportive and inclusive.
7. Leverage Data and Reflection for Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement in senior care requires regular reflection and data-driven insights. Organizations that gather feedback from caregivers and assess the impact of training programs can make informed adjustments to ensure that their initiatives remain effective. St. John’s Home, for example, conducted pre- and post-assessments of staff who participated in the VR training and found significant improvements in emotional intelligence and day-to-day care.
Data from the study showed a 20% increase in staff who felt better equipped to handle upsetting problems and think about different approaches to care. Encouraging staff to reflect on their experiences, as well as using data to guide decisions, ensures that training efforts remain relevant and impactful.
The working environment for those across the aging care continuum is undeniably challenging. By reducing burnout and improving training, we can create a better experience for all.
If you’d like to learn more about this study, you can access all past webinars here.
When you’re ready, Embodied Labs is here to help you improve your workforce training and implement immersive learning experiences. To get started, book a no-obligation exploratory conversation.
