Occupational stress and the importance of self-care and resilience: focus on veterinary nursing

Abstract

BackgroundBurnout and compassion fatigue are frequently mentioned in relation to veterinary work. Veterinary nursing is a caring profession and those who seek a career within this field do so because of a natural empathetic desire to care for animals. However it is the individuals who are the most caring and empathetic towards others that will be most at risk of experiencing occupational stress when they are confronted with psychologically demanding workplace roles and working environments.Main bodyBurnout is considered an ‘unintentional end point’ for certain individuals who are exposed to chronic stress within their working environment. When suffering burnout, a person may experience emotional exhaustion, may become more cynical or they may have a reduced sense of personal accomplishment in regards to their own work. Signs of burnout can include increased levels of absenteeism at work, or the working standards of that staff member may decline below that of what would normally be expected of them. This could directly impact on patient care in the veterinary practice.Working in a role that places emotional demands on staff, such as a need to show compassion and empathy towards clients who are emotionally distressed, puts staff at risk from experiencing compassion fatigue. Workplace supports may include appropriate debriefing sessions among willing participants, particularly after an emotionally stressful encounter with a client.Taking personal responsibility for care of one’s own mental and physical health is just as important as taking care of the patient’s health. Personal strategies may include lifestyle changes, adopting a healthier lifestyle, reduction of working hours, and ensuring adequate sleep. Adopting healthy self-care strategies can promote characteristics of "resilience" - personal qualities or traits such as optimism, self-confidence, level headedness, hardiness, and having the ability to be resourceful during times of adversity.ConclusionAll veterinary staff may be better prepared to deal with occupational stress related conditions if they gain better insight and ability to recognise the condition in self and others, and if provided with the toolkits to develop coping strategies and resilience.

Association between diabetes-related self-care activities and positive health: a cross-sectional study

“…This study indicated that although DRSCA were positively correlated with resilience in Pearson correlation analysis, the association was non-significant after adjusting for background information. This finding indicates that compared with the association of social support and SWB with resilience, the association between DRSCA and resilience was weak in people with T2DM and different from a previous study conducted among veterinary staff 32. This implies that a high level of social support is more important than DRSCA in building resilience in people with T2DM.…”

“…Resilience theorists believe that resilience can be learnt, developed and enhanced through an individual’s lived experience and activities 30 31. A previous empirical study indicated that healthy self-care strategies can promote resilience among veterinary staff 32. Better DRSCA teach people to adopt multiple skills for more self-disciplined lives, which may be helpful in building resilience.…”

Hazard identification, risk assesment and risk control serta penerapan risk mapping pada rumah sakit hewan Prof. Soeparwi Universitas Gadjah Mada

“…(9) E r g o n o m i d i d e f i n i s i k a n s e b a g a i i l m u y a n g menghubungkan pekerja dengan semua aspek pekerjaan dan lingkungan kerja. (10) (11) Bahaya Psikososial merupakan bahaya pekerjaan yang memengaruhi kesejahteraan psikologis pekerja termasuk kemampuan untuk berpartisipasi dalam lingkungan kerja diantara orang lain (12) (13) Petugas kesehatan mengalami kelelahan emosional yang berdampak padas stress kerja dan mungkin berdampak lebih sehingga dapat mengalami burnout. Menurut Lubis (2009) burnout adalah keadaan seseorang di tempat kerja yang ditandai dengan menurunnya produktivitas karena stres ditempat kerja secara terus menerus, yang ditandai dengan gejala depresi.…”

Building resilience in contemporary nursing practice

“…However, developing resilience can be particularly challenging in nursing, a role in which uncertainty and the need for effective decision-making are constant (Scammell, 2017). Being able to effectively manage personal mental and physical health is as essential as caring for a patient's health (Lloyd and Campion, 2017). Mills et al (2015) advocated that the inability to demonstrate self-care, kindness and compassion to oneself has the potential to compromise and demonstrate compassion to others.…”