{"id":285,"date":"2021-09-30T19:44:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/accnursing2030\/chapter\/12-6-mitigating-stress-with-self-care\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T18:43:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T18:43:03","slug":"12-6-mitigating-stress-with-self-care","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/accnursing2030\/chapter\/12-6-mitigating-stress-with-self-care\/","title":{"raw":"12.6 Mitigating Stress With Self-Care","rendered":"12.6 Mitigating Stress With Self-Care"},"content":{"raw":"As previously discussed, the action of providing nursing care can result in significant stress. The stress response is exacerbated when experiencing extreme or repeated stressors, such as client deaths. In some health care settings, nurses do not have time to resolve grief from one loss before another death occurs.\n\n[pb_glossary id=\"515\"]Compassion fatigue[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> and burnout occur frequently with nurses and other health care professionals who experience cumulative deaths that are not addressed therapeutically. Compassion fatigue is a state of chronic and continuous self-sacrifice and\/or prolonged exposure to difficult situations that affect a health care professional\u2019s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. This can lead to a person being unable to care for or empathize with someone\u2019s suffering. Additionally, many individuals who experience compassion fatigue may become detached from the emotions associated with the care experience or client needs. These individuals can often appear numb to the severity of the circumstance of the events that are occurring. [pb_glossary id=\"512\"]Burnout[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> can be manifested physically and psychologically with a loss of motivation. It can be triggered by workplace demands, lack of resources to perform work professionally and safely, interpersonal relationship stressors, or work policies that can lead to diminished caring and cynicism.[footnote]This work is a derivative of Nursing Care at the End of Life<\/a> by Lowey and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a>[\/footnote]<\/sup> See Figure 12.4[footnote]\u201cBurnout_At_Work_-_Occupational_Burnout.jpg<\/a>\u201d by Microbiz Mag<\/a> is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a>[\/footnote]<\/sup> for an image depicting a nurse at home experiencing burnout due to exposure to multiple competing demands of work, school, and family responsibilities.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_284\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"505\"]\"Photo 12.4 Burnout[\/caption]\n\nWith the significant dangers of burnout and compassion fatigue within the nursing profession, it is important to acknowledge actions and strategies to facilitate self-care. Self-care can occur in many actions that individuals take to maintain self-health and is critically important for preventing compassion fatigue and burnout.\n\nTo facilitate self-care, nurses must recognize the need to take time off, seek out individual healthy coping mechanisms, and voice concerns within their workplace. Prayer, meditation, exercise, art, and music are examples of healthy coping mechanisms that nurses can use for self-care. Nurses should reflect on what actions bring them personal satisfaction and rejuvenation. These strategies should then be purposefully included to help reduce the influence of work-related stressors. For example, perhaps you are a nurse working in a busy Level 1 trauma center and emergency department. You are nearing the end of your third 12-hour shift and have the following day off. The unit manager approaches you and states that there has been an ill call for tomorrow\u2019s evening shift. You are offered premium pay to come in and work. Although there is a part of you that is interested in receiving the premium pay, you also take a moment to think about your current situation. You are tired from working three 12-hour shifts the last three days and had plans to go to your child\u2019s baseball game tomorrow evening. Taking stock of these reflective thoughts, you politely decline the additional shift. Acknowledging your fatigue and the satisfaction that you will feel in attending your child\u2019s game are important parts of facilitating self-care. Although you could have chosen to work the shift, taking time to look inwardly on what will bring about the greatest rejuvenation and avoid burnout will help cultivate professional engagement.\n\nAdditionally, nurses must recognize when outside resources are needed to mitigate stress and facilitate self-care. Many organizations sponsor employee assistance programs that provide counseling services. These programs can be of great value and benefit in allowing individuals to share both individual and employment stressors. For example, employee assistance programs can address employment-related stressors, such as cumulative client deaths, as well as personal challenges impacting one\u2019s work role, such as a family illness. The support of an impartial, trained professional can be very helpful as individuals navigate through stressful stimuli.\n\nThere are specific stress stimuli that may require specialized intervention. For example, after a client death resulting from trauma, many organizations hold debriefing sessions to allow individuals who participated in care to come together to verbalize their feelings. These sessions are often held with the support of chaplains to facilitate individual coping and verbalization of feelings. Debriefing sessions can be very helpful as individuals experience collegial support in working through traumatic stress stimuli.\n
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Read more about the role of chaplains in facilitating coping in the \u201cSpirituality<\/a>\u201d chapter in Open RN Nursing Fundamentals, 2e<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

\n\nReflective Questions<\/strong>\n\nThroughout your nursing career, there will be times to stop and pay attention to warning signs of compassion fatigue and burnout. Here are some questions to consider:\n