The holiday season is here, and – for many people – this time of year evokes feelings of warmth and joy with an emphasis on spending time with loved ones and taking time to rest and relax. Unfortunately, health care is one of the few industries exempt from this downtime, and it’s not just patients who experience the holiday blues.

The reality of the holiday season for many health care workers doesn’t feature meaningful time spent with families or a well-deserved week off. Instead, that reality consists of heightened stress, increased job demands, clashing cultural ideas of what holidays are “supposed” to be, and the exasperating expectation to be filled with holiday cheer. Stress experienced during the holiday season can lead to increased feelings of sadness, anxiety, disconnectedness, loneliness, and social isolation. According to a recent survey conducted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2021), 40% of health care workers are anxious about working long hours during the holiday season and 54% say their stress level increases during the holiday season.

Many health care workers are already running on empty by the time the holidays roll around. Health care professionals need a consistent routine of well-being practices to stay charged, alleviate distress, avoid burnout, and remain connected to family, friends, colleagues and patients.

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, pressure on health care teams was on the rise, and the prevalence of burnout among physicians in the United States was at an alarming level, with half experiencing symptoms (Shanafelt et al., 2012). During the height of the pandemic, physician burnout rates across all specialties reached an all-time........

© Psychology Today