Irish Hospice Foundation
Toolkit for Compassionate End-of-Life Care
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Suggestions for self-care
Take breaks • Take your rest breaks. We need to nourish ourselves to flourish. • Call a ‘time out’ (usually, a few minutes is enough) as a way of dealing with emotional flooding after a traumatic event — for example, tell your colleagues that you need to take a five- minute walk or break.
Practice mindfulness exercises • As you walk from your car to your workplace or through the corridors of your workplace, attend carefully to the sensation of contact between your feet and the ground. • Set your watch or telephone alarm for midday each day. Use this as a prompt to centre or ground yourself in the here-and-now (e.g., take 4 deep slow breaths, think of a loved one, recite a favourite line of poetry, prayer or a verse of song). • Stop at a window in your workplace and notice something in nature — consciously give it your attention for a few moments. • Regularly pause and bring your attention to the sensation of your breathing for 2 to 5 breaths. • Use routine activities to stimulate your pauses – for example, every time you wash your hands, take a few deep breaths. • Keep a notebook and write ‘field notes’ on traumatic or meaningful encounters and events. • Deliberately develop a role-shedding ritual for the end of the day — for example, changing out of work clothes, using the drive home from work to sing, taking five minutes on the way home to breathe some fresh air, listening to music or audiobooks. Maintain social connections • Deliberately make connections during the day with your colleagues, residents/patients and families and, where possible, use humour. • Stay connected to the outside world during the day (e.g., phone home or check in with loved ones). Be kind to yourself • It is important to be kind, caring and compassionate to yourself. • Give yourself permission to do what you need to do to look after yourself, to care for yourself. • Seek help from your colleagues, even if you’re the one in charge! • Supporting people to die well is an enormous challenge. Remember, it is often the small things that count the most. at’s where you can make a big difference.
Staʙ 6
Caring for
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