Self-Care
摘要
This chapter considers self-care to be a broad definition of measures for improving, restoring, maintaining, and protecting the welfare of people. Researchers are increasingly focusing on the development of self-care therapies for health professionals to manage emotional trauma and moral challenges associated with employment. Self-care for health professionals is the practice of taking care of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being to cope with the demands and pressures of their roles. As health professionals are exposed to high levels of stress, demanding long working hours, and emotional work, self-care is important to all health professionals. Organisational climate, workplace factors, and moral distress further affect the health and well-being of staff. Self-care can prevent burnout, suffering, emotional trauma, and improve personal and professional satisfaction, resilience, and performance. The need to prioritise self-care for staff is fundamental to the provision of caring for patients’ spiritual needs, undertaking a spiritual assessment in the provision of high-quality patient care. Self-care is a broad range of personal and organisational resources, strategies, and techniques that healthcare professionals can use to reduce moral distress. Self-care must be nurtured to enhance an understanding of our spirituality and who we are as persons first when faced with the psychological demands associated with healthcare. Unless we know who we are and how we are, it can be difficult to accept or take care of a person’s spiritual needs to enable them to flourish. We cannot give to others that we do not possess ourselves.