Overcoming Secondary Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice: A Guide to Professional Resilience and Personal Well-Being

by Robert J. Wicks

Overview

Physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals working in today's health care settings must be prepared to offer support in dangerous times despite staffing shortages, financial pressures, and complex legal requirements. Overcoming Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice: A Guide to Professional Resilience and Personal Well-Being is a concise guide for all medical professionals who face these demands. This book: · Provides critical information about the dangers of compassion fatigue/burnout and vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder in health care settings · Introduces a newly-developed "Medical-Nursing Professional Secondary Stress Self-Awareness Questionnaire" that can be profitably self-administered at each phase of one's career and reflected upon in private, with one's mentor, or in a small group setting · Includes a unique section on strengthening one's inner life through the use of three core spiritual wisdom approaches drawn from a world religion perspective · Provides a description of four types of "voices" one needs to have in one's circle of friends to ensure that balance, perspective, growth, and challenge are fostered in one's personal and professional life · Describes how physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals can formulate a personally-designed self-care protocol for themselves Lastly, this book offers an extensive and up-to date bibliography of recent research, clinical papers, and books on medical-nursing practice and secondary stress. Overcoming Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice is an indispensable resource for medical and nursing professionals, students, and the counselors and therapists who work with them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190291471
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/25/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	398 KB

About the Author

Robert J. Wicks is a Professor at Loyola College in Maryland.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Reaching Out . . . Without Being Pulled Down: Remaining Passionate in the Fields of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health - A Guide to Personal and Professional Well-Being
Chapter 1. Tacking on Dangerous Psychological Waters: Appreciating the Factors Involved in Chronic and Acute Secondary Stress
Chapter 2. "Riding the Dragon:" Enhancing Self-Knowledge in the Healing Professional
Chapter 3. Drawing From the Well of Wisdom: Three Core Spiritual Approaches to Maintaining Perspective and Strengthening the Inner Life of the Physician, Nurse, and Allied Health Professional.
Chapter 4. The Simple Care of a Hopeful Heart: Developing a Personally-Designed Self-Care Protocol
Epilogue Passionate Journeys: Returning the Wonders of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health
Appendix I Reading Further: Additional Books on Secondary Stress in Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health, and in the Behavioral Sciences

Editorial Reviews

5 Stars! from Doody

Reviewer: Vicki Ann Moss, DNSc, MS, BSN, RN (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh)
Description: This book discusses secondary stress (burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder) and the denial that often accompanies it in health professionals. It provides guidelines to avoid or limit secondary stress and includes ways that health professionals can strengthen their inner lives to provide a buffer to this type of stress.
Purpose: The main goal of this book is to raise the awareness of health professionals to the danger of secondary stress.
Audience: According to the author, "this book is written for psychologically healthy physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals."
Features: This book is relatively short (197 pages in length), which was purposeful since the author believes time is critical for health professionals. He made it brief, to the point, and practical. It consists of an introduction, four chapters and an epilogue. The introduction discusses how health professionals can remain passionate in their work without succumbing to secondary stress. Chapter 1 discusses the factors involved with chronic (burnout and compassion fatigue) and acute (vicarious post-traumatic stress) secondary stress. Chapter 2 provides ways to enhance self-knowledge and self-talk for the health professional. Chapter 3 discusses three core spiritual approaches to enhance the inner life, and Chapter 4 presents guidelines on how to personally design a self-care protocol. The epilogue summarizes things professionals should do to keep the enjoyment and wonder in their everyday practice.
Assessment: The author has a doctorate in psychology and close to 30 years' experience working with health professionals. Each chapter ends with objectives and discusses additional books on the chapter topic. Chapter 2 includes a newly developed "Medical-Nursing Professional Secondary Stress Self-Awareness Questionnaire" that can be self-administered at each phase of a person's career. Each chapter has many tables with helpful practical hints to assess stress and ways to deal with it constructively. This book ends with an extensive 40-page bibliography on the topic of secondary stress. It would be a very valuable resource for any health professional working in today's healthcare arena.

Doody's Review Service

"Like most of Wicks' works, this book is easily accessible, presented with real-life examples and interviews, and packed with practical self-help advice. For those who wish to pursue any particular themes touched on in this guide, there are plenty of links to follow."—Vision

"...brief, to the point, and practical...a very valuable resource for any health professional working in today's healthcare arena." (5 Stars—Highest Rating)—Doody's

From the Publisher