Coaching and Burnout in Healthcare Professionals: From Firefighting to Sustainable Practice Burnout is now widely recognised as a serious occupational hazard in healthcare, yet it is also increasingly understood as a modifiable one. The World Health Organisation describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon arising from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, characterised by exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism about work,

Burnout and the Body: How Long-Term Stress Affects Our Physical Health Burnout develops when stress continues for so long that the body and mind can no longer cope. People often think of burnout as an emotional problem, but scientific research shows that it affects the body in many important ways. Long-term stress can disturb hormones, weaken the immune system, affect the heart and