scholarly journals Teaching Compassionate Mind Training to help midwives cope with traumatic clinical incidents

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-35
Author(s):  
Caroline J Hollins Martin ◽  
Elaine Beaumont ◽  
Gail Norris ◽  
Gavin Cullen

Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) is taught to cultivate compassion and teach midwives how to care for themselves. The need to build midwives' resilience is recognised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), who advocate that mental health coping strategies be embedded into the midwifery curriculum. In this respect, CMT can be used as a resilience-building method to help midwives respond to self-criticism and threat-based emotions with compassion. The underpinnings of CMT involve understanding that people can develop cognitive biases or unhelpful thinking patterns, co-driven by an interplay between genetics and the environment. Within this paper, the underpinning theory of CMT and how it can be used to balance psychological threat, drive, and soothing systems are outlined. To contextualise the application to midwifery practice, a traumatic incident has been discussed. Teaching CMT has the potential to improve professional quality of life, and reduce midwife absence rates and potential attrition from the profession.

Author(s):  
Celeste Foster

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate professional quality of life of mental health nursing staff working within an adolescent psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. Professional quality of life is important, as there is a correlation between staff wellbeing and the quality of healthcare services delivered, particularly within mental health settings. Mental health nursing staff in adolescent PICU services deal with a wide range of physically and emotionally demanding challenges when providing care, yet the potential impact of this demanding work upon staff in this context has not been explored. Design/methodology/approach The study used a longitudinal non-experimental design with a purposive sample. Quantitative data were collected from a total of 17 registered mental health nurses and healthcare assistants (HCAs) working in an adolescent PICU in the North of England. Repeated measures were administered at three consecutive intervals, three months apart, using a validated self-report measure, the Professional Quality of Life Scale V (ProQOL V, Stamm, 2010). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using benchmark data from the ProQOL V instrument for comparison. Findings Analysis of results compared to ProQOL V benchmark data showed significantly higher than expected levels of compassion satisfaction, and lower than expected levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress for adolescent PICU nursing staff within the study. There were no significant differences between qualified nurses and HCAs. Potential explanations and practice implications of these findings are discussed. Originality/value This is the first published study to investigate professional quality of life within the mental health nursing population working in adolescent PICU, providing empirical insights into a previously unexplored mental health context.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Zhou ◽  
Xinping Zhang

Abstract BackgroundAppropriate hand hygiene behavior is much crucial during COVID-19 pandemic, which is influenced by workload, mental health and professional quality of life. The increasing workload, worse mental health and negative professional quality of life are severe challenges for healthcare workers, whereas the evidence of mechanism between them and hand hygiene behavior are limited. This study aimed to understand and model how HCWs’ hand hygiene behaviors were influenced by workload, mental health and professional quality of life.MethodsA total of 1,734 healthcare workers were investigated, covering self-reported hand hygiene behavior, mental health, workload, professional quality of life and socio-demographic characteristics. Structural equation modelling was conducted to confirm interrelationships and parameters among the variables.Findings The final model had a good fit (CFI=0.980; TLI=0.941; RMSEA=0.055). Higher workload was linked to worse mental health (β = 0.165, p < 0.001) and higher burnout (β = 0.183, p < 0.001). Worse mental health was linked to higher burnout (β = 0.339, p < 0.001). The higher burnout was associated with worse self-reported hand hygiene behavior (β = -0.302, p < 0.001).ConclusionWorkload is positively associated with mental health and burnout; mental health is positively related to burnout; burnout is negatively associated with hand hygiene behavior. Thus, hand hygiene behavior can be promoted by the strategy to decrease the workload, burnout and enhance mental health.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thayane Martins Dornelles ◽  
Andreia Barcellos Teixeira Macedo ◽  
Sônia Beatriz Cocaro de Souza

ABSTRACT Objective: to verify the relationship between professional quality of life scores and coping strategies in the multidisciplinary health team that assists children and adolescents victims of sexual violence. Method: a cross-sectional study carried out in a public hospital of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Data collection took place from July to October 2018, using the Professional Quality of Life Scale and the Inventory of Coping Responses at Work. The analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. Regression was used for independent variables with p ≤ 0.05 in the bivariate analyses. Results: the professionals showed a medium level in the compassion satisfaction dimension (54.2%), medium level for secondary traumatic stress (50.8%), and medium level for Burnout (61%). Regarding the coping strategies, the decision-making strategy showed a weak correlation with the compassion satisfaction dimension (0.261), and the emotional extravasation strategy showed a moderate correlation with secondary traumatic stress (0.485) and Burnout (0.399). The female gender was associated with secondary traumatic stress (p=0.002). Conclusion: the identification of coping strategies such as decision-making can help the professionals to increase the levels of compassion satisfaction. In situations of suffering in daily work, management to avoid emotional extravasation should take place, preventing high levels of compassion fatigue. Such information is important to support public policies on occupational health, as well as programs to promote occupational health.


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