How to Prevent Clinician Burnout: Creating a Self-Care Plan During Clinical Supervision
During those initial supervision sessions when engaging in relationship building and expectation settings, there should be a conversation around self-care and regular, meaningful engagement about it throughout the supervisory relationship.
The goal is to ingrain self-care into clinical practice. It should operate as a proactive practice and not merely a reactive one. This is particularly true when working with high acuity clients or large caseloads, but in general is also best practice. Part of creating your resident’s toolbox throughout supervision can be creating their self-care plan with them.
Incorporating self-care into regular supervision can look like spending the first 5-10 minutes checking in with the resident to see how they are doing and focusing on their experience as clinicians and humans and not immediately jumping into case consultation (unless a situation warrants it). Additionally, working collaboratively to create a self-care plan through reflective questions and open conversations around barriers can help the resident to think more proactively about self-care and how to incorporate into their daily life and not simply when experiencing periods of high stress or better yet, how to maintain it during periods of high stress and limited time.
The self-care plan can include signs for when the clinician is stressed and gives them ways to identify that they may need to take more care with themselves. It can include both distraction and more reflective practices to aid in self-regulation and increased understanding regarding how they are feeling and their overall capacity. This plan can include whatever the clinician determines is useful to them, and, much like a treatment plan is a living, breathing document that can change and evolve over time depending on their needs and how their self-care practices change.
We have included a template and some guided self-reflection questions to aid in creating a self-care plan. This can be completed together during supervision, started in supervision and completed between sessions, or given prior to a supervision session to be completed and then discussed at a follow up session. The supervisor and resident should retain a copy and refer back to it often.
Self-Care Plan
Stressors:
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Reactions:
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3.
What Helps You Feel Rested/Rejuvenated:
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How Can We Make Time for Those Things?
How Do You Protect Your Time? What Do Your Boundaries Look Like?
Example of Schedules. Where can things be adjusted or added?
Weekly Schedule:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Daily Schedule:
7 am:
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7 pm:
