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SUPPORT INTERVENTIONS
One of the most important support interventions according to Feldstein & Gamma (1995):
"nursing administration needs to provide staff support around caring for dying patients.
A seminar on dealing with the feelings associated with caring for dying patients should be included in every orientation schedule of classes.
Staff support groups provide opportunities for onclolgy nurses to deal with their grief experiences with one another."
Ogle(1983) suggested:
"peer support groups, which encourage sharing, are important so those individuals realize the feelings they experienced are not unique to them".
Sarantos (1988) stated:
"crisis intervention counselling and psychosocial programs offer a wide range of services to prevent burnout.
The goal of prevention oriented services is to:
- increase the nurse's interpersonal skills and ability to manage stress, utilizing activities such as communication skill training, clinical problem solving assistance, stress management classes, therapeutic massage, interdisciplinary foruma and opportunities for individual education".
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According to Welsh (1999) There are 6: "strategies for surviving stress and banishing burnout as an oncology nurse.
- Pracitce responsible selfishness:engage in activities, past times, and pursuants with no purpose other than to recharge and renew personal energies.
- Keep work esparate from home:the transition time between work and home presents possibilities for emotionally decompressing from the pressure of the job and distraction techniques. Physical exercise such as an aerobic walk on the way home or listening to favorite musice on the drive hom
- Development of positive support groups:find comfort and healing in the company of others who share similar personal experiences.
- Refuse to be a victim:when we refuse to fall into the helpless and hopeless trap of victim thinking, we also mode a style of coping with adversity that benefits our patients.
- Remember to laugh:should we fail to see the humor in the events around us then we need only look in the mirror to find the sillies and most amusing person we shall ever meet
- Redifine success:such as the definition of success offered generations ago by Ralph Waldo Emerson" to know that even one life breathed easier because you lived".
Other strategies for reducing nurse burnout according to Ogle(1983):
- "nurse patient ratios be examined regularly to assess their apppropriatness.
- non nursing functions should be reviewed to determine if these functions could be reassigned to nonprofessionals.
- arrangements should be made that encourage nurses to take break time off the oncology unit.
Humor is another strategy for decreasing burnout. According to Simon (1989):
"humor has both psychological and physical benefits. As a psychological function, humor serves as a coping strategy reducing feelings of anxiery, tension, and anger. Reducing theses emotions promotes a feeling of relaxationa and well being as well as the ability to cope with stressful situations.
Since humor produces psychological and physioliogical well-being the use of hyjor among staff has the potential to increase job satisfaction and productivity".
