The term "burnout" has become popular for describing a condition of workers and administrators in professions with a high degree of people contact. Burnout involves feelings of exhaustion, development of chronic negative attitudes about oneself and/or clientele, and lowered job performance. A review of literature reveals that burnout as a concept is limited in definition and usefulness when compared with the concept of stress. Stress research gives more aid in understanding the individual, outcomes of stress, and skilled coping technique development. Burnout can be best understood from a stress conceptualization as a sign of health strain or an outcome of harmful stress. Institutional and organizational environments are important, but the basic responsibility for minimizing harmful stress, health strain, and burnout lies with the individual. It may be necessary to move from the limited writings on burnout to the more extensive and useful research on stress to understand and cope with the problems of burnout. (NRB)