How to cope with the emotional strain of being a nurse

The emotional distress of caring for seriously ill and dying patients can take its toll on nurses who may struggle with feelings of unresolved grief. If it is not recognised and dealt with issues can build up that can lead to burn out, compassion fatigue, inadequate care for patients and nurses leaving the profession.

So, what can nurses do to protect themselves and maintain healthy and happy careers?

This episode explores the findings of research conducted with children’s nurses and what it revealed about their experiences of caring for seriously ill and dying children. However, these experiences will not only be felt by those working with children but by nurses working with adults in many different settings.

This episode looks at the psychology behind these issues and why at a time of immense pressure on services, increasingly complex care, acute staff shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic they are so important to deal with. There are some tips on what all nurses can do to maintain their well-being and what employers can do to support the workforce, including an argument that clinical supervision should be compulsory.

Guests

Speaking to Nursing Children and Young People editor Christine Walker are Alice Nugent, a psychotherapist at Dublin Business School, and Agnes Higgins, professor of mental health in the school of nursing and midwifery at Trinity College Dublin. They are two of the authors of the recently published study in the RCNi journal Nursing Children and Young People titled Nurses’ experiences of managing vulnerability when working with seriously ill children.

https://journals.rcni.com/nursing-children-and-young-people/evidence-and-practice/nurses-experiences-of-managing-vulnerability-when-working-with-seriously-ill-children-ncyp.2022.e1403/abs

For more episodes of the Nursing Standard podcast, visit rcni.com/podcast

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