Blog posts with the tag "Self Care"

Staff Perspective: Moral Distress, Residue, and the Crescendo Effect - Understanding the Potential Impact of the Extended COVID-19 Crisis

By Debra Nofziger  on 17.06.2020 10:07 am
Dr. Deb Nofziger

I had a patient who had once been a psychiatrist and left the field to return to general medicine. He was an active duty Service member who'd had multiple deployments. I remember thinking that he had become so burned out from working with Service members around behavioral health issues and combat that he had to leave that part of the profession altogether. But even then, I realized that "burned out" did not capture what I was seeing in him

Staff Perspective: Learning to Live with Danger

By Debra Nofziger  on 10.06.2020 1:45 pm
Dr. Deb Nofziger

The other night, I was talking with a neighbor about my irritation with loved ones whom I viewed as having an extreme reaction to the current pandemic. When I talk with others and hear about how worried and anxious they are -- and what I view as over-the-top rituals they perform to sanitize their world -- I have found myself getting frustrated with them and trying to convince them that they don’t have to be so worried. At the same time, I am worried about my own reaction, or perceived lack thereof. Is there something wrong with them… or me?

Guest Perspective: Because We Care - Risk for Moral Injury During the Covid-19 Pandemic

By Bill Nash  on 05.06.2020 11:01 am

For all its power to terrify, Covid-19 can’t keep us from marveling at the courage of frontline human service workers all over the world. They are braving not only the physical dangers of repeated exposure to the deadly virus, but also the emotional dangers of empathically sharing so much suffering with so many, and the moral dangers of possibly being unable to save every savable life, such as when intensive care services become overwhelmed. Their courage seems all the more remarkable given that all three of these dangers are invisible, operating mostly outside of anyone’s immediate awareness.

Staff Perspective: COVID-19 and Self-Reintegration

By Debra Nofziger  on 13.05.2020 10:24 am
Deb Nofziger, Psy.D.

Current social-distancing has limited ways we cope with both internal and external stressors. The less we are able to distract ourselves with the external world, the more time we have to listen to our own thoughts. How do we and our patients cope with personal demons when usual distractions are out of reach? What about those of us who are loving isolation because it has cut down on the external stressors?

Staff Perspective: On the Front Lines - Helping Our Helpers

By Christy Collette  on 14.04.2020 10:49 am

As we navigate through these unprecedented times, as helping professionals, we prepare ourselves to help those patients who come our way. What we are less prepared for, are those times that our patients are one of us. The author answers the question, “How does caring for one of our own affect our work during this time of crisis?”

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