Caring until it hurts
As health professionals we are so used to caring for others that we can forget to care for ourselves. Talking with other midwives and nurses, they will often put the needs of families and work above their own needs. It’s just what we do. Often when we are at work, we are faced with many challenging clinical situations, increased acuity, acute and chronic shortages of staff. There is no time or limited time to take a break, or to be able to reflect on a case or debrief at work. We just carry on. How do we keep on top, or manage our clinical responsibilities on a day-to-day basis and care for our patients/clients without putting ourselves at risk? I certainly noticed that my care radar was incredibly low when I experienced burnout about 7 years ago. It was a scary place to be in.
What is resilience?
One of the key things that has come to mind has been about building resilience. Resilience is a term that has been used in relation to science where it describes the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress (Marion Webster Online Dictionary). Hunter and Warren (2022, page 9) state their definition of resilience is ‘a positive adaption to adversity […] without significant psychological or physiological disruption’. Resilience may be interpreted as toughen up in a work setting that is socially, economically, and culturally challenging’. Or it can be about learning, changing, and adapting to situations we are in.
Resilience – 3 key areas
Three key areas were identified as being part of resilience
1. Reactive strategies – day to day managing and coping
2. Developing self-awareness and knowing yourself
3. Proactive strategies which were building resilience in yourself and others
Reflecting on my role as a midwife
When I reflect upon my role as a midwife, I’m in an environment that changes rapidly and often responding to multiple clinical needs and emergencies with no time to reflect on what has happened. I am a reflector by nature so having time to be able to reflect on cases in a constructive way can be helpful. I notice that when I don’t have time to do this and we are very busy at work, or there are other challenging situations that keep coming, my resilience can go down and I can become more reactive to clinical situations that I’m in.
The benefit of professional support sessions
In my role as a life and career coach and professional supervisor, I have been helping midwives, nurses and other health professionals for the last few years who have engaged in professional support sessions. They have been able to decompress the reactive day to day managing and coping and they have developed ‘self-awareness and knowing yourself’ which has given them skills in managing work and home life. As a result, they can put in proactive strategies that helps them nurture that resilience in themselves and others. This has helped the midwives and nurses bring the balance back into caring for themselves and others.
How did we build resilience?
This was done through a series of exercises where participants looked at their learning styles, career and personal values, strengths and skills and feedback received from their patients/clients and peers. All these exercises have enabled the developing ‘self-awareness and knowing yourself’. In each session, the clients were able to choose what they wanted to focus on and discuss. Sometimes, even though there may have been a previous plan to look at a topic, it was more imperative for the client to spend time looking at a work issue at hand (the reactive strategies) and being able to discuss this.
Going forward
If you are wanting to find out more about how you can build your resilience and/or thinking about some professional support, please contact me through:
Email: lynnie@thetreasurechest.co.nz
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See www.thetreasurechest.co.nz for more details
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