Burnout at UAMS, ACH, and Baptist Health: A Guide for Healthcare Workers in Little Rock
Author: Britney Hardin, MBA, MS, LAC, LAMFT
You chose this work because it mattered. Because you wanted to help people. Because something inside you said this is what I am supposed to do — and you proved it by surviving everything it took to get here. The school. The debt. The residency. The years of running on too little sleep and too much coffee and the belief that it would all be worth it.
And then one day you sit in your car in the parking garage of UAMS, or Arkansas Children's Hospital, or Baptist Health — and you realize you do not want to go in.
Not because you stopped caring. Because you have cared so much for so long that you have run out.
That is healthcare worker burnout. And it is not a character flaw. It is a clinical condition — one that is significantly underaddressed in the healthcare community, and one that deserves real support.
Why Healthcare Burnout Is Different
Burnout in healthcare workers is not the same as burnout in other high-achieving professionals. It carries layers that other versions of burnout do not.
Compassion fatigue. Healthcare workers absorb the pain of others as part of the job description. A nurse who just lost a patient has to turn around and walk into the next room and show up fully for that patient. A physician navigating a devastating diagnosis has to continue moving through a full caseload. The accumulation of that emotional exposure — grief layered on grief, loss layered on loss — is a specific and compounding burden.
The mission and the guilt. When a teacher burns out, they can grieve the career shift and move forward. When a healthcare worker burns out, the feeling of not wanting to do this anymore collides directly with the identity, the calling, and the purpose that organized their entire adult life. There is debt tied to the degree. There is a caseload of real people depending on them. There is a professional identity built around being the one who helps — and now they are the one who needs help.
That collision creates a guilt that is uniquely devastating. I cannot do this anymore. And then immediately: But I have to.
The normalization of suffering. Healthcare culture has a long history of treating burnout as part of the process — something you power through, something that is baked into residency and shift work and the cost of caring. That normalization means healthcare workers are often the last to seek help, because the system they are part of modeled that suffering in silence is professional.
It is not. It is costly. And it does not have to continue.
What Burnout Looks Like in Healthcare Workers
Because burnout is so normalized in healthcare culture, it often goes unrecognized until it has reached a critical level. Here are the signs I see most often in healthcare workers who come to BH Counseling Clinic:
Emotional detachment. You used to feel things with your patients. Now you go through the motions. You know intellectually what is happening in front of you, but the emotional resonance has faded. This is not who you are — it is what compassion fatigue does over time.
Chronic exhaustion that rest does not fix. You work a 12-hour shift, come home, sleep, and wake up still depleted. The rest does not restore because the nervous system never fully disengages. Your body is still at the hospital even when you are home.
Dread before shifts. The Sunday Scaries, except it applies to every shift. The anxiety that builds before you go in — not about anything specific, but a general dread that has become the background of your professional life.
Cynicism and irritability. You snap at colleagues. You find yourself thinking things about patients you would never have thought before. You feel guilty about the thoughts. The guilt compounds the exhaustion. The cycle continues.
Loss of meaning. The work that once felt like a calling now feels like a job — and a heavy one. The sense of purpose that carried you through the hard parts has gone quiet.
If several of these feel familiar, you are not broken. You are depleted. And depletion is treatable.
What Therapy for Healthcare Worker Burnout Actually Looks Like
Therapy for healthcare workers is not about convincing you to leave your career. It is about helping you understand what is happening in your body and your nervous system — and building the capacity to sustain the work you still care about.
At BH Counseling Clinic, sessions for healthcare workers are focused and practical. We work on:
Processing the accumulated grief and loss that comes with clinical work
Identifying where compassion fatigue has taken root and what restores it
Building sustainable boundaries between work and home — not to care less, but to care longer
Developing coping strategies that fit the reality of shift work, unpredictable schedules, and the emotional demands of your specific role
Addressing any faith-based dimensions of the guilt and calling that are part of your experience
This is not a prescription to slow down or step back. It is an investment in your ability to keep going — at a level that is sustainable, and in a way that lets you actually be present for the work and the people you love.
A Note on Confidentiality for Healthcare Professionals
I understand that confidentiality is a particular concern for healthcare workers. The idea of seeking therapy — especially in a community where professional reputation matters — can feel risky.
At BH Counseling Clinic, your sessions are fully confidential, protected by HIPAA and Arkansas state law. Telehealth is available, which means you do not have to walk into an office where someone might recognize you. Your employer is not notified. Your license is not at risk simply because you sought support.
Seeking therapy is not a sign of professional unfitness. It is a sign of professional wisdom — the same kind of wisdom you would encourage your patients to exercise.
To the Healthcare Worker Reading This
To the nurse, the physician, the hospital staff member, the PA, the respiratory therapist — whoever you are at UAMS, ACH, Baptist Health, or anywhere across Central Arkansas:
You chose this work because it mattered. And it still does. The fact that you are struggling does not change that.
What it means is that you have been giving a great deal for a long time without enough coming back in. And that is not sustainable — not for you, not for your patients, not for the people who love you at home.
Calling in backup is not weakness. For someone in your profession — someone who refers patients to specialists, who calls a colleague when a case is beyond their lane — it is the most clinically appropriate thing you can do.
In-person sessions are available in West Little Rock. Telehealth is available across Arkansas. The free 15-minute consultation is confidential and carries no obligation.
Schedule your free 15-minute consultation — in person or via telehealth →Call or text: (501) 283-7879
Frequently Asked Questions
Will seeking therapy affect my medical license or professional standing? Seeking voluntary outpatient therapy does not affect your professional license. Your sessions are confidential and protected by HIPAA. If you have specific concerns about your situation, consulting with a healthcare attorney can provide additional clarity — but for the vast majority of healthcare workers, therapy is private, protected, and completely separate from professional credentials.
Is telehealth available for healthcare workers with unpredictable schedules? Yes. BH Counseling Clinic offers telehealth sessions and appointments before and after standard business hours, including weekends, to accommodate the scheduling realities of shift work and clinical environments.
Does BH Counseling Clinic accept insurance? BH Counseling Clinic is in-network with Municipal Insurance (MHBF — Municipal Health Benefit Fund). Private pay options are also available, and we can provide a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement. Learn more here.
Sources
American Counseling Association (ACA). (2014). ACA Code of Ethics. Alexandria, VA.
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Burnout. In G. Fink (Ed.), Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior (pp. 351–357). Academic Press.
Shanafelt, T. D., & Noseworthy, J. H. (2017). Executive leadership and physician well-being. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 92(1), 129–146.
West, C. P., Dyrbye, L. N., & Shanafelt, T. D. (2018). Physician burnout: Contributors, consequences, and solutions. Journal of Internal Medicine, 283(6), 516–529.
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion Fatigue: Coping With Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized. Brunner/Mazel.