Abigail Neeley

SOWK 481-001

22 October 2023

Reflection Paper

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, research has shown how the rate of burnout and stress

have drastically increased for both healthcare workers and social workers throughout the

duration of the pandemic. Since this increase in burnout, healthcare workers and social workers

need to take action to prevent burnout in the future and manage stress levels to remain competent

and efficient in their daily jobs.

Context

One aspect of social work practice I anticipate being the most challenging for me as it

relates to my management of stress is my inability to say no. This would add increased stress

during my experience with social work practice because I would commit myself to too many

responsibilities and time commitments, and this would decrease my time for self-care and

increase the rate at which the burnout process occurs. By overcommitting myself to

responsibilities by not saying no, I would experience higher stress levels and my competence

would decrease as a result.

Challenging Assumptions

One assumption I bring to the idea of stress and burnout is that I am immune to becoming

too stressed or experiencing burnout during my experience in social work practice. In the past, I

have noticed I am sometimes unable to recognize when I have become too stressed or if I am

experiencing stress, and this causes me not to perform well in school and other aspects of my
life. Moving forward, I will actively observe my emotions and actions to ensure I am able to

recognize when I am experiencing stress or feeling an excessive amount of stress.

Past Successes

When I am stressed, I appear withdrawn and distant from others, and I also become more

irritable when under pressure. I also tend to isolate myself from others when I become stressed

because I know I become more irritable, and I know taking time to myself helps me when I am

stressed. The last time I was stressed and around others in class, I realized I was starting to

become irritable. To manage the way I was acting when feeling stressed in class, I decided to go

to the restroom to take a few moments to myself. During this time, I took several deep breaths

and thought more rationally about the tasks I needed to complete and the times I would do them

during the day. I felt I did well managing my stress during this situation because I not only did I

take a moment alone and take deep breaths, but I also created a mental plan of the tasks I needed

to complete to find a solution to my stress. Following the moment I took to myself to take a deep

breath, I went back to class less irritable and felt significantly less stressed because I had created

a mental plan of how I was going to solve my issue. Moving forward, I will use the techniques I

used this day to prevent burnout by taking a moment by myself, taking deep breaths, and creating

a mental plan with time management in mind.

Values, Beliefs, Convictions, and Identity

Managing my stress reinforces my values and beliefs in several ways because this allows

me to perform at my best of my abilities. By managing my stress, I can be competent in

reinforcing my values and beliefs in social work practice and perform judgements to the best of

my abilities. One way managing stress challenges my values is because I greatly prioritize self-

care in my daily life by taking time to myself and not overloading myself with work. By
prioritizing self-care and reducing my workload when I am stressed, this can sometimes interfere

with one of my values, hard work, by taking some responsibilities off of my plate. Because I try

to reduce my workload with unnecessary responsibilities when I am stressed, I tend to not work

as hard following my self-care because I will get into the routine of having less responsibilities.

This challenges my value of hard work, and I can combat this challenge by reducing my

unnecessary responsibilities before I become stressed rather than when I am already stressed so I

can manage my responsibilities more efficiently.

Self-Care

My most significant takeaway from the report was the statistic stating women experience

burnout at a higher rate than men do. This was surprising to me because I did not realize there

would be a significant difference between the burnout rate of men and women. My most

significant takeaway from the video is that social workers are more likely to experience PTSD

than the general public. This will change my self-care approach to managing stress of a graduate

level education and when I become a professional social worker because I will have a better

understanding of how stress can affect social works and I can be more proactive about my self-

care practices. To avoid burnout, one short-term care act I can implement is to take walks by

myself each morning to ensure I have enough time during the day to myself and so I can also

exercise each morning. A long-term plan I can implement to avoid burnout is to ensure I am not

overloading myself with responsibilities, so I do not feel as though I am overwhelmed. By not

overloading with responsibilities, I can put more energy into the work I am currently doing rather

than putting in less effort into several commitments.

Because I can recognize when I am stressed out, I can be aware of my levels of stress

and stay on top of my workload while also taking care of myself. By implementing self-care
plans and being aware of how I become overly stressed and burnout, I can manage my stress and

continue to perform well with my current responsibilities and in my future social work practice.