Vitality as a Moderator of Clinician History of Trauma and Compassion Fatigue

Integrative Wellness Approaches to Mitigate Perceived Stress, Increase Vitality, and Build Community during COVID-19: A Pilot Study

INTRODUCTION

In January 2020, a small, private school of nursing in a university in the pacific northwest, established the Initiative for Vital Practice (I4VP). The I4VP's primary goal was to create a sustainable pathway for increasing vital practice through increasing resiliency and self-care practices.

OBJECTIVES

The ensuing pathway's objectives were to, (1) take previously identified factors related to perceived stress related to workloads, impacts on professional quality of life and psychosocial exposures during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (2) develop and pilot test a wellness intervention (i.e., wellness pods) for faculty and staff to build community and find new ways to enhance well-being through peer support.

METHODS

Five focused Wellness Pods were developed on Microsoft Teams platform using the individual channels: (1) stress and mind-body exploration pod; (2) mindfulness in healthcare pod; (3) healing relationship pod; (4) environmental pod; and (5) physical activity pod. Faculty and staff self-selected into a Wellness Pod that interested them. The Wellness Pods met weekly in person over a period of two months. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected via cross-sectional surveys including: four sociodemographic items, one item on current stress level, one write-in item on current stress management at work, two write-in items focused on the cognitive reasoning for participation, the 7-item subjective vitality scale focused individual difference, the 7-item subjective vitality scale focused on the state level, the 10-item perceived stress scale, and one item ranking which wellness pod the individual wanted to participate in. There was one trained facilitator for the overall Wellness Pods operations and communication.

RESULTS

The average score on the perceived stress scale was 22.3 (SD = 3.5), indicating moderate levels of perceived stress. The average score on the individual difference vitality score was 26.5 (SD = 7.6), whereas the state level vitality score was 21.4 (SD = 9.98), indicating moderate levels of subjective vitality. Two categories: stress management and wellness pods, were identified through content analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Through pilot testing, this project demonstrated feasibility for future wellness pods interventions for faculty and staff at schools of nursing. Future research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the wellness pods intervention.

Piloting the Perfect Storm: A Vision for the Vital Practitioner

BACKGROUND

A private university nursing program established the Initiative for Vital Practice in response to increasing levels of compassion fatigue (CF) and burnout among faculty and staff during an undergraduate program revision and accompanying leadership transitions.

METHOD

A pilot mixed-method project evaluated self-management practices meant to mitigate CF among faculty and staff.

RESULTS

Faculty and staff (N = 34) identified four primary risk factors for CF, including physical symptoms (14 of 34 = 41%); feeling trapped in work (14 of 34 = 41%); lacking time away from work (11 of 34 = 32%); and inability to work hard enough (10 of 34 = 29%). Individual and organizational stressors and alleviators were analyzed; aggregate scores for three Professional Quality of Life scales presented at a "moderate level."

CONCLUSION

Preliminary results establish a baseline to measure the effect of burnout and secondary stress and guide further development of our organizational framework and initiative. [J Nurs Educ. 2022;61(1):46-49.].

The Impostor Phenomenon in Mental Health Professionals: Relationships Among Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction

Imposter phenomenon is defined as a sense of intellectual fraudulence and an inability to internalize success and competency. Although imposter phenomenon has been noted in several populations, literature is sparse that focuses on mental health professionals. In addition, little is known about the relationships between imposter phenomenon, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction for mental health workers. Using a survey design with a convenience sample of 158 mental health workers, this study found that imposter phenomenon was positively associated with compassion fatigue, as well as negatively associated with compassion satisfaction, when controlling for years of work and age. Further, the combination of lower levels of compassion satisfaction and higher levels of burnout predicted higher levels of imposter phenomenon. Implications and preventative measures are discussed.