Professional quality of life greatly affects the overall well-being and work performance of healthcare workers. It is important to address the factors that negatively affect this and form habits through brief interventions.

In this episode, Darcy Copeland, a Professor of Nursing and Nurse Scientist, talks about the study she conducted on brief workplace interventions to address burnout, compassion fatigue, and teamwork in nurses.

Listen and learn in this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• The more burnout providers have the worse their teamwork is, the better their teamwork is, and the less burnout they have.    

• The particular model of professional quality of life differentiates the quality of life on two things: compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue.

• Secondary traumatic stress is the emotional burden of repeatedly being in contact with humans who are suffering.

• Burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress are work-related injuries and if we think about them as work-related, we'll determine who can help prevent them. 

Brief Interventions Darcy explored to address burnouts and compassion fatigue:

Each of these were conducted with nurses for only 10 minutes per day over a number of weeks. Nurses were given one activity to do:

1. Journaling

Journal Prompts:

-How would a patient, visitor, or colleague describe a particular situation?

-The best thing that happened today.

-What would I have done differently if I could...

-This situation was unexpected and what I did.

-The situation that touched me the most today.

-Would you believe this happened?

-The way I got through this.

1. Meditation

Meditation using a phone-based app.

1. Spending time outdoors

Spend time outside without cellphones or pagers to just observe nature.

1. Practicing Gratitude

Thank and recognize at least three people every day.

Results of the study:

Darcy found in this pilot study encouraging evidence that indeed, only 10 minutes per day of self-care was effective in enhancing nurses' wellbeing. When nurses were given an opportunity and encouragement to ring-fence 10 mins of shift time for self-care, highly positive feedback was received.

The conclusion - nurse managers out there should look to make this time available and actively encourage staff to choose an activity each day.

Today’s Guest:

Darcy Copeland is a Nursing Professor at The University of Northern Colorado and a Nurse Scientist.

The Study:

Brief Workplace Interventions Addressing Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Teamwork

Find more about Darcy Copeland here:

https://www.unco.edu/nhs/nursing/about-us/faculty/copeland-darcy.aspx 

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