Health Professional and Graduate Student Well-being

What were the main conclusions of the study?

• Implementation of self-care MBSR interventions can be tailored to the preferences and values of educational institution

• More research is needed to decrease perceived stress in the graduate student population and graduate student health science student and graduate nursing student populations

Are stress management techniques effective for reducing perceived stress among graduate students? Why or why not?

• Stress is positively correlated with depression and can hinder academic performance

  • Although more research is needed, there is evidence that supports the effectiveness of implementing self-care interventions to reduce stress

    • Study focuses on female students in graduate health science programs—excluding males and distance learning

What intervention ingredients were effective? (own words)

• Most effective

  • Didactic component

  • Guided MBSR practice session

  • Homework

What were the common elements in all 8 included studies?

• Didactic portion

• Experience component

• Homework

• Type of self-care MBSR intervention

  • Most common: breathing techniques and meditation

Didactic

Meaning to teach or to have received moral instruction

Mind-body-stress-reduction (MBSR)

A phrase that includes activities for stress management (yoga, mediation, breath work, and mindfulness)

How was the common elements similar to or different from your health and wellness plan intervention?

• As OTD students, we experience high levels of stress that may lead to depression

  • Learning self-care interventions is valuable as a graduate student to not only improve their academic performance as well as their mental health

  • Being able to properly manage self-care and stress is vital for optimal occupational performance

Apply the material in the readings to your situation. Will you use any of this information as a graduate student? As an OT?

• As a student and therapist, I will use these self-care interventions for myself and my clients

  • Understanding the positive and negative effects of stress and how to properly deal with will benefit the me as a therapist and a student

According to OT in Community & Population Health Practice, what are basic recommendations for professional self-care. How well do you know these areas?

• Restful sleep

• Good nutrition

• Adequate physical activity

Injury

unintentional or intentional damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to thermal, mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen

Risk factor

• any attribute characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury

  • some examples of more important ones:

    • underweight

    • unsafe sex

    • high blood pressure

    • tobacco

    • alcohol consumption

    • unsafe water

    • sanitation

    • hygiene

Hazard

• the potential to cause harm, or a condition or activity that if not controlled could result in illness or injury

• four broad categories

  • physical (radiation, noise, poor working conditions)

  • chemical (naturally occurring or human made such as vapors or gases from industry and tobacco)

  • biological (allergens, blood, bacteria, viruses, and other microbiological organisms)

  • psychological (high levels of stress, exposure to violence)

Burnout

psychological syndrome that involves a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job that results in feelings of being overextended and depleted of one’s emotional and physical resources

Compassion fatigue

• emotional state with negative psychological and physical consequences that emanate from acute or prolonged caregiving of people stricken by intense trauma, suffering, or misfortune

• symptoms:

  • trouble sleeping/exhaustion

  • increased emotional reactivity/hypersensitivity to emotional material

  • hypervigilance or heightened sensitivity to potential threats of self

  • diminished interest in regular activities

  • reduced ability to feel empathy

  • anger and irritability

  • absenteeism (work, family, and social events)

  • difficulty separating work life from personal life

Moral distress

• exacerbate stress

  • tension that arises when a moral agent is unsure of the best course of action to take or encounters a barrier that prohibits doing what is known to be right

Describe health-care worksite risks and potential risk-reduction strategies

• risk for compassion fatigue and burnout due to stress

• increases instances of anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep, substance abuse, marital discord, early retirement, and suicide rates

  • increases likelihood of medical errors, team disruptions, angry interactions with patients have been reported

• educate employees about job stress

• establish and maintain stress-management programs

• provide readily available counseling from nonjudgmental source

• provide group therapy or specific job related stressors

• use of relaxation exercises and biofeedback until stress source us identified

What is resilience and what are preventive and corrective behaviors?

• patterns of positive adaptation or following significant adversity or risk

  • prevent: activities someone engages in to protect from burnout and help resist adversity

  • correct: activities a person engages in to help cope effectively with stressful conditions

How does resilience relate to compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction?

• resilience enhances the likelihood of experiencing compassion satisfaction

  • joy and fulfillment a person derives from helping other people

• levels of compassion are high, there is less risk of burnout

• a direct result of caregiver ignoring the symptoms of personal stress combined with inattention to personal emotion over time

  • attack on a key element of OT practice, the OT’s empathy and ability to show compassion

Describe micro- level strategies for preventing burnout and building resilience

• individual

  • focusing on what is best for you and what you can do as a professional to avoid burnout

• professional self-care: engaging in behaviors and activities that increase energy, lower stress and contribute to health and well-being

  • sleep

  • nutrition

  • exercise

  • social support

• coping: conscious volitional efforts to regulate emotion, cognition, behavior, physiology, and environment in response to stressful events or circumstances

• mindfulness: awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment

• gratitude: emotional response based on recognition of perceived unexpected benefit due to good intention

• self compassion and emotional intelligence

Describe meso- level strategies for preventing burnout and building resilience

• CDC promotes workplace health programs that are a coordinated and comprehensive set of strategies which include programs, policies, benefits, environmental supports and links to the surrounding community designed to meet the health and safety needs of all employees

  • CDC workplace model:

    • Assessment

    • Planning & Management

    • Implementation

    • Evaluation

  • Mayo Clinic: strategies implemented that demonstrated significant impact

    • needs, cultivating community at work, and providing resources to promote professional self care and resilience

    • variety of work schedules were adopted to encourage work life balance

Describe macro- level strategies for preventing burnout and building resilience

• Federal and state agencies

• Legislatures

• Accreditation organizations

• Third party payers

  • Creates policies, procedure, regulations that directly affect health care workers

  • Level at which overall values, principles, strategies for health are development and where decisions concerning resource allocation occur

    • has no significant impact on meso and micro

    • more research on this level strategies for burnout is clearly needed