Content area
Full text
Caring for people with chronic kidney disease, let alone during a pandemic, can place nurses at risk for burnout. This study explored the effects of the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) 8-week training on nephrology nurses' levels of self-compassion, burnout, and resilience. Twelve nurses participated. Surveys were completed before, immediately after, and three months after training. A focus group was also conducted. Results demonstrated in-creased levels of self-compassion, mindfulness, and resilience while levels of burnout decreased. The central qualitative theme was enhanced resilience. Subthemes were creating a community of support, awareness and dis-covery, and the mastery of the techniques. The MSC train-ing was an effective intervention to build essential skills for maintaining a healthy workforce. Implementation of such training programs within the health care environment are highly encouraged.
Key Words:
Hemodialysis, nurses, self-compassion, resilience, burnout.
Individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) requir-ing life-sustaining hemodialysis (HD) three times per week can have highly complex medical and psychosocial needs. The burden on their lay caregivers is also immense. Managing the needs of these patients/families on a long-term basis, let alone during the pandemic, can place an emotional toll on nephrology nurses caring for them, which may result in burnout. In fact, a study by Flynn and colleagues (2009) reported that 31% of nephrology nurses reported high levels of burnout. Similarly, a Canadian study reported that nearly 41% of nephrology nurse respondents experienced burnout in the form of emotional exhaustion, and 23% had made plans to leave their posi-tion (Ridley et al., 2009). Burnout can increase when faced with caring for patients in the midst of the COVID-19 pan-demic. In a U.S.-based, cross-sectional survey examining nephrology nurses' physiological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, 62% of respondents reported feeling work-related burnout, 47% reported symptoms of anxiety, and 16% reported major depressives episodes (Montoya et al., 2021). Workload was identified as the major driver of increased levels of anxiety and burnout; increased odds of developing these ailments were found among respondents who had at least one health condition that was related to increased risk of COVID-19 complications (anxiety) and caring for COVID-19 positive patients (burnout) (Montoya et al., 2021).
While causes of stress vary, such work-related stress can result in absenteeism, frustration, and increased errors in clinical decision-making (Karkar et al.,...