“You said burnout? Whew, chile!” A multigenerational collaborative autoethnography on the complexities of burnout and care among Black women researching substance use

Abstract

Background: Researchers and participants who are members of minoritized populations experience negative psychosocial and wellness outcomes like burnout. Burnout may manifest uniquely for Black women in academia conducting research with Black women participants navigating similar sociocultural contexts. Objectives: This article qualitatively interprets our experiences as 15 Black women scholar-practitioners at a midwestern university conducting community-engaged research. We discuss our experiences of care and burnout while working to reduce opioid use disparities among Black women community members as we simultaneously navigate multilevel challenges in academia. Design: We employ collaborative autoethnography, an autobiographical writing method, using a Black feminist framework and intersectionality methodology. Methods: We are 15 Black women researcher-subjects on the REFOCUS study—a mixed-methods National Institute on Health-funded project examining nonmedical prescription opioid misuse among Black Kentuckians. We examined a series of multigenerational sista circles and individual journal entries we completed to understand the multilevel power dynamics impacting our individual and collective work, burnout, and care. Results: Themes were: (1) “I see me in you”: Research with Black Women, (2) “Pervasive, cellular, and epigenetic”: Burnout Experiences; (3) “Taxing but rewarding”: The Price We Pay to See an Outcome, and (4) “Thank God for the collective”: Complexities of Caring Through the Process. Conclusion: We highlight the importance of continued efforts to address workload inequities among Black women in academia, particularly for those working to combat health disparities among Black women or within Black communities. We make recommendations for structural, institutional, and interpersonal steps to improve the support of Black women across career stages.