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: DT Provides critical information about the dangers of compassion fatigue/burnout and vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder in health care settings DT 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 DT 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 DT 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 DT 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

Foreword

Introduction. Reaching Out... Without Being Pulled Down: Remaining Passionate in the Fields of Medicine and Nursing—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. Wicked Problems in Health Care: Identifying, Reframing, Sufficing, and Forgiving Oneself
Chapter 3. "Riding the Dragon": Enhancing Self-Knowledge and Self-Talk in the Health Care Professional
Chapter 4. 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 5. The Simple Care of a Hopeful Heart: Developing a Personally Designed Self-Care Protocol
Epilogue: Passionate Journeys: Returning to the Wonders of Medical and Nursing Pratice

Bibliography
Index
About the Authors

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

"Dr. Robert Wicks and Dr. Gloria Donnelly's updated book provides timely guidance and invaluable, concrete strategies to better understand and prevent stress and the cycle of burnout. This book should be on all healthcare providers' list of required readings as they prepare to face the rewards and challenges of our ever-changing healthcare environment." — Patrick C. Auth, PhD, PA-C, DFAAPA, 2017 Leadership Development Awardee, Physician Assistant Education Association

"I prescribe this go-to resource for healing professionals in medicine and nursing who entered into practice psychologically healthy and now feel damaged. It's a life jacket for all who are drowning in unrelenting stress wrought by COVID-19, the current machinery of corporate healthcare delivery, and individual life circumstances. Wicks and Donnelly expertly help readers to gain perspective into their unique situations and start their personal healing journey. If your passion for healthcare is fading fast, reach for this book to become revitalized." — Linda Laskowski-Jones, MS, APRN, ACNS-BC, CEN, NEA-BC, FAWM, FAAN, Editor-in-Chief, Nursing2020: The Peer-Reviewed Journal of Clinical Excellence

"Burnout' of healthcare professionals preceded the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has brought the problem 'front and center.' Overcoming Secondary Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice is a beautifully written book; a must read not only for all healthcare providers and their employers but their relatives. This compassionate, concise text provides a clear blueprint for understanding why stress is a pervasive problem for medical and nursing professionals along with strategic solutions for prevention, endurance, and resilience." — Julie H. Levison, MD, MPhil, MPH, FACP, Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

"We are living in unprecedented times. Living through a pandemic, health providers have had to radically alter how they practice, for example, learning how to do telehealth overnight. This power-packed book should be read by all health care providers, whether they are administrators, educators, researchers or front-line staff. Secondary stress confronts us all, and this book assists health providers to manage such stress." — Al Rundio, PhD, DNP, RN, APRN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Vice President for Scholarly Advancement and Co-Editor-In-Chief, Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice (National Academies of Practice)

From the Publisher