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Caring for Staʙ 6.
Self-care in end-of-life care Caring for people at end of life can be rewarding. People working in palliative and end-of-life care often describe feelings of great job satisfaction, gratitude and enhanced appreciation of the spiritual dimensions of life. Healthcare workers tend to be people who are motivated to care for others. is predisposition, and the nature of care work itself, mean that particular attention is needed if staff are to avoid compassion fatigue and burnout. Compassion fatigue has been likened to over-caring, or caring too much. It is often characterised by: • An inability to switch off. • Intrusive thoughts or dreams about work. • Avoidance and withdrawal. • Irritability. If we do not attend to compassion fatigue especially if it is accompanied by overwork, it can lead to burnout. Burnout is a defensive mechanism, which is characterised by:
None of these feel good and none of these are good for you as a staff member or as a person, or for the people that you are looking after. If you are working with people who are facing dying, death and bereavement, it is useful to remind yourself of the following: • You are not immune to grief. • You need to take care of yourself in order to be effective and resilient in this work. • You need to be supported in this work by the organisation (hospital or nursing home) in which you are working. • You need to be aware of your own approach to loss and to death. • You need to have a sense of what draws you to this work and what you get out of it. • You need a safe place to process your own feelings. • You need to have a sense of what helps you to stay healthy and committed to this work.
• Emotional exhaustion. • Detachment (not caring at all). • Feelings of powerlessness. • Cynicism.
Staʙ 6
Caring for
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