The Alliance Spotlight Series is a recurring one-page publication for front-line healthcare professionals, offering quick-takes on critical topics affecting the field of organ donation and transplantation. We encourage you to download these issues and share them with your front-line colleagues and partners.
It starts with periodically assessing your current status and applying appropriate interventions.
Managing Stress & Preventing Burnout
“….chronic lack of self-care/compassion fatigue, like any other kind of fatigue, reduces our capacity or our interest in bearing the suffering of others” (Figley, 2002, p.1434)
Definitions
Self-Care for Prevention & Treatment of Stress & Burnout
It starts with periodically assessing your current status and applying appropriate interventions.
Assessment Tools: Are You Burning Out Survey* / Compassion Fatigue ProQOL
Helpful Resources
Figley, C. R. (2002). Compassion fatigue: Psychotherapists’ chronic lack of self-care. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 1433–1441. doi:10.1002/jclp.10090.
Pennebaker, J. W. (2004). Writing to heal: A guided journal for recovering from trauma and emotional upheaval. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.
Taken from a webinar presentation by Michelle A. Post, MA, LMFT (Manager, Donor Family Aftercare, OneLegacy,
Los Angeles, CA). Special thanks to Ms. Post for her contributions to this inservice.
A special thanks to Elizabeth Spencer from Elizabeth Katherine Communications LLC for her contributions to this issue.
Hedi has been a critical care nurse for over 26 years, gathering experience in three different countries. She has a Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in intensive care nursing and a Masters of Science in Nursing as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. After working as an ICU Educator, she transitioned into the organ, eye, and tissue donation field. She worked for two different Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO), OneLegacy and Donor Network West, where in her last position she was the Donation Process Improvement Manager.
During her time in the OPO field, Hedi served as faculty for the North American Transplant Coordinator Organization (NATCO) and chaired the national Association of Organ Procurement Organization’s (AOPO) Hospital Development Council. After working for the OPO, she took a leadership role with the national organization the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance where she became the Senior Director of Programs, leading various national initiatives, councils and workgroups.
After many years of providing consultations, trainings and speaking engagements, she founded her own business in 2018, called Fundamental Roots. Fundamental Roots offers various customized soft skills trainings, including topics surrounding managing one’s sphere of control, general communication and collaboration skills, and physician communication and partnership. Leveraging her life-experiences in growing up internationally and having lived on four continents and in 7 different countries, Hedi also provides trainings on cross-cultural communication.
Advancing All.
The Alliance is not a membership organization and therefore relies on annual voluntary financial support from OPOs and transplant programs who find value in our programs and initiatives.