Personal Resilience for Healthcare Staff

If people and organisations in healthcare cannot care for themselves, how can they care for the populations and communities they exist to serve? Healthcare professionals and their organisations are subject to growing pressures, including regular reviews and reorganisations, coping with the impact of an aging population, financial pressures, shrinking of career prospects and enhanced expectations of what a healthcare system can do - all within a fierce media spotlight. Many healthcare staff also experience physical and psychological stress caused by long working hours. This practical guide has been written specifically for individuals who are experiencing anxieties engendered by working in healthcare. It examines the reasons why healthcare organisations are susceptible to these difficulties and considers the possible causes of such stress. By adopting a workbook format it suggests practical ways personal resilience can be developed and enhanced, and offers tools to stimulate thought and assist this process. Human resource managers, counsellors, training and development professionals, coaches, mentors and leadership consultants within healthcare organisations will also find this workbook enlightening.

John Edmonstone

Foreword. Who should read this book? About the author. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part 1: The way we live now. Employment in today's organisations. Healthcare organisations: cradled in anxiety? Part 2: Personal resilience: strategies for survival. What do we mean by personal resilience? Ensuring a secure base. A reality orientation. An ability to improvise. Self-care. Putting it all together. Part 3: Resources. Action learning. Appreciative inquiry. Assessment centre. Attachments. Best boss exercise. Coaching. Constructing a lifeline. Core process exercise. Development centre. Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence questionnaire. Finding, decoding and experimenting with 'trigger' events. Focus groups. Giving and getting feedback. Life launch. Managing emails. Managing meetings. Mentoring. Personal SWOT analysis. Role negotiation technique. Say what you see. Secondments. Seven tips for overcoming procrastination. Shadowing. Some helpful aphorisms. Strategies, strengths, resources, insights (SSRI) review. Techniques for dealing with anger. The shield. Three types of behaviour. Tips on how to deal with being on the receiving end of face-to-face criticism. Work-life balance wheel. Work values cards. What healthcare organisations should be doing. Further reading. Index.