Reigniting the Spark: A Breakthrough Approach to Acute Care Burnout

Show Notes S4E1

Burnout isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a lived experience for many clinicians working in hospital settings. In the Season 4 premiere of Acute Conversations, co-hosts Dr. Leo Arguelles and Dr. Danny Young are joined by Kelly Murphy, PT, DPT; Maria Tucker, PT, DPT; and Laura Cataldo, MOT, OT to unpack what burnout really looks like in acute care — and what can actually be done about it.

Drawing from their published work in the Journal of Acute Care Physical Therapy and their experience leading a departmental burnout initiative at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the guests break down how burnout is defined, how it can be measured, and why it so often goes unrecognized until clinicians are already depleted. They explore the core components of burnout — emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment — and why acute care environments uniquely intensify each one.

The conversation goes beyond awareness to action, highlighting both individual strategies and system-level interventions that can help clinicians reconnect with purpose while still navigating high-acuity, high-demand settings. From grounding techniques that work mid-shift to organizational changes that foster transparency, recognition, and trust, this episode offers a practical and hopeful framework for clinicians who want to keep showing up — without losing themselves in the process.

Today’s Guests:

Kelly Murphy PT, DPT

kamurphy0615@gmail.com

Maria Tucker PT, DPT

mtucker4@bidmc.harvard.edu

Laura Cataldo MOT, OT

lecataldoqu@gmail.com

Guest Quotes:

11:14 Laura “ …in our research, it, burnout is not something that can be fixed by doing individual interventions alone. And in a setting such as a hospital, or other large organizations, you really have to focus on organizational changes as well to have an effect on burnout.”

26:21 Maria “… another like self-reflection piece is like, yeah, we’re burnt out, but also our managers and leadership and everybody, like they’re burnt out as well.

… but realizing and saying, they can be burnt out and they are burnt out and we’re just experiencing a different area of burnout or a reason for burnout. But at the end of the day, we all have the same like kind of feelings.”

32:05 Kelly “ I think it just brought general awareness to how good it feels to remind our staff. Shout each other out or thank someone for their help thing. And then, gosh, I still, to this day, every day on my commute home on the train there’s one intervention that we talk about in here. Three good things. I still do that every day on the way home because I’m like, you know what? Even if this was the worst day ever and my patients. Really had a hard day all day. I can still choose three good things, even if it’s not patient care related.”

Rapid Responses:

What’s your best stress relief activity on the weekends when you’re not working?

Ski and golf. Oh, we’re all answering…I like going for a walk with my dog.

You know you work in acute care when…

Laura “When your knee deep in bodily fluids”

Maria “ When you have determined both your worst and best outcome for every single patient before you enter the room.”
Kelly “ When you come down to lunch and different scrubs and you start out the day in… Or if you’re throwing away your sneakers, like it’s beyond just a bleach wipe.”

Links:

https://journals.lww.com/jacpt/abstract/2025/04000/assessing_and_managing_prevalence_of_burnout_in.1.aspx

🎧 Connect with Our Hosts

Leo Arguelles (pronounced LEE-O R-GWELL-IS)

📧 largue2@uic.edu

🐦 Twitter: @LeoArguellesPT

Nicole Neveau, PT, DPT, NCS

📧 ngunder1@gmail.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Nicole Neveau

Danny Young, PT, DPT, PhD

📧 daniel.young@unlv.edu

🐦 X: @DLYoungDPTPhD