Healthcare Professionals: You Can’t Pour From an Empty Cup
Over the last year and a half, healthcare professionals have worked tirelessly to save countless lives and work towards a new sense of normalcy. The COVID-19 pandemic has added another layer to the already stressful field of healthcare. Trauma of losing patients to COVID-19, longer hours/more shifts, taking on new roles within your position, shortage of protective equipment, concern for the well-being of yourself and your family, the ongoing uncertainty when it comes to potential staffing shortages as a result of the vaccine mandate, and compassion fatigue.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are two experiences that many healthcare professionals will or have experienced in their career. So, what is compassion fatigue? Sometimes referred to as secondary trauma, compassion fatigue is the emotional, psychological, and even physical impact of being in a helping profession and taking on the trauma and stress related to your job. It eventually leads to worsening mental health symptoms including feelings of hopelessness, depression, exhaustion, dissatisfaction, irritability, and eventually burnout. Burnout is the unfortunate outcome of ongoing stress and trauma in the workplace. It leads to exhaustion, reduced effectiveness and productivity at work, and mistrusting or feelings of doubt. Burnout and compassion fatigue not only impact you as healthcare workers, but also the work environment and the care provided to patients. Unfortunately, the battle against COVID-19 has been long and draining, which has drastically increased already very high rates of burnout amongst healthcare workers.
Do not neglect yourself.
Your mental health is key to keeping you physically and emotionally healthy.
It might be easy to recognize when it is time to seek help for your mental health but for many professionals, burnout and compassion fatigue are far too normalized. Don’t neglect yourself. Managing your mental health is key!
Ways to Manage Your Mental Health
Seek therapy: you have likely heard this a million times over the last year and a half, but seeking therapy is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Experiencing stress, trauma, and compassion fatigue as a healthcare worker are inevitable but a mental health professional can help you manage and process your experiences and trauma through the use of various therapeutic modalities and coping skills. Pro tip: Reach out to your employer and ask for information about your company’s EAP (employee assistance program), which often provides free counseling sessions for your and your family.
Feel the feelings: your job is a stressful one, no doubt. Feeling the emotions and impacts from high stress work is in no way a reflection on your ability to effectively perform your job or a sign of weakness. Give yourself the grace and time to feel all of your emotions and if too heavy to carry alone, follow step 1 or 3.
Stay connected: your colleagues can understand the immense pressure that comes from working through a pandemic as a healthcare worker. Stay connected with each other, talk to a trusted supervisor or colleague, perform check-ins. You are stronger together!
Take care of yourself: take your breaks, take your lunches, use your PTO, get outside! You are working and living in a difficult time, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get to care for yourself. Make sure to feed your soul with things that make you happy and utilize coping strategies that help you manage your stress to avoid burnout.
Check your quality of life: if you feel that you may be experiencing compassion fatigue, the professional quality of life scale can help you better understand your own experiences as well as the many symptoms that come with compassion fatigue.
Although there are stressors and trauma related to the healthcare field, there is also a level of compassion satisfaction, the positive feelings associated with helping or healing others, that you probably feel. Being a healthcare professional is a noble calling. Your job as a healthcare professional is one that requires you to care endlessly for your patients and sometimes, their family members. But you can’t pour from an empty cup - caring for others also requires that you care for yourself. Remind yourself that although you are working through a challenging time, your work is important, selfless, and beyond appreciated.
Healthcare professionals, we thank you for the work that you have provided and are continuing to provide. Reach out today to receive care for you, you are important and you matter.