Chapter 22 PA- Issues for the death care professional - exam 3 Flashcards
True or false:
The separation of the aged, the ill, and the dying in our society creates problems for loved ones in processing their grief.
True
True or false:
It is widely recognized that those professionals and volunteers to whom the care and ministry of dying people fall need to grieve as well.
False - it is not widely recognized.
Takes a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual toll on people.
Stress
True or false:
The consequences of burnout may include loss of health and well-being as well as a decline in professional performance.
True
- A condition
- A loss
- A state
Characterizations of burnout
A debilitating psychological condition brought about my unrelieved work stress, which results in depleted energy reserves, lowered resistance to illness, increased dissatisfaction and pessimism, increased absenteeism and inefficiency at work.
Burnout
definition by:
“The work stress connection: how to cope with job burnout”
by Robert Veninga and James Spradley
A progressive loss of idealism, energy, and purpose experienced by people in the helping professions as a result of the conditions of their work.
Burnout
Definition by:
“Burnout” by Jerry Edelwich and Archie Brodsky
A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding.
Burnout
Definition by:
“Career Burnout Causes and Cures” by Ayala Pines and Elliot Aronson
Increases as stress occurs in several or consecutive fashion with little or no time to grieve one loss before the next one happens.
The potential for burnout
A term coined by Dr. Ronald Barrett, a situation that develops when there is such an accumulation of unresolved, compounded grief that an individual may simply grow numb.
Bereavement burnout
- burnout
- Expectations for caregivers
- Organizational hazards
Risks for death care professionals
- Begin the career with naive enthusiasm, which may include the expectation of making a difference, may soon become overwhelmed by the sheer volume and urgency of need confronted on a daily basis.
- Visiting nurses or home hospice workers may become deeply emotionally invested in families they serve, when a death occurs the isolated nature of their work often leaves them bereft of opportunities to interact with colleagues and process feelings. In addition, these individuals are constantly adjusting to diverse settings as they move from patient to patient, creating even more stress.
Expectations of caregivers
The factors of systemic design and organizational procedures under which many death care professionals work.
- Often unclear expectations for those who are working with the dying.
- makes caregivers more open to stress because they are unable to ascertain the criteria against which they will be assessed. (Rando)
- Mechanisms to reduce stress, manage the threat of burnout, and process grief are frequently absent from an organization’s overtaxed resources.
- lowering of morale
- sense of being alone with one’s feelings
- reduction of job satisfaction
- negative interpersonal dynamics
Organizational hazards
All resources are devoted to simply coping. Often happens when professionals become caught in a cycle of attachment and loss.
Emotional disinvestment
- Exhaustion
- Despair
- powerlessness
- Apathy
- Alienation
- Depression
- Loss of self-esteem
- Irritability
- Loss of energy
- Cynicism
- Poor concentration
- Nightmares
- Loss of creativity
- Negative attitudes
These can be reflected in behavioral changes that not only affect coworkers and quality of client care but may seriously affect an individual’s personal relationships.
Symptoms of burnout
- decrease in physical, social and professional effectiveness
Serious threat that burnout poses
- Characterized by the initial stimulation of a new job and the enthusiasm and desire to succeed and prove oneself.
- Stress has started to build and fatigue and job disappointment have set in.
- Chronic exhaustion
- The emergency, or crisis point
- The crossroads between help or hopelessness
The 5 stages of burnout
This is the positive, if perhaps unrealistic, time when a death care worker feels read, willing, and able to “do it all.”
- The initial stimulation of a new job and the enthusiasm and desire to succeed and prove oneself.
- Professional may come to believe (correctly or incorrectly) that the organization or agency doesn’t share the same level of commitment to the work and its urgency.
- Particularly the case with health and human services personnel serving the AIDS community.
- Stress has started to build and fatigue and job disappointment have set in.
Brings a higher intensity of emotion and possible physical symptoms.
- anger
- depression
- proneness to accidents
- conscious or unconscious guilt
- less communicative
- Begin to withdraw socially
- Use of addictive coping mechanisms such as caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs may increase substantially during this stage.
- Chronic exhaustion
If no intervention has taken place, the death care professional is at risk for opportunistic illness and is likely to demonstrate averse behavior on the job:
- coming in late
- leaving early
- taking longer breaks
- becoming angry when demands are made
- treating clients impersonally
Simultaneously, the professional is experiencing feelings of failure and pessimism and may obsess over his or her disappointments and loss of values that were held so brightly in the first stage.
- The emergency, or crisis point
It should be a goal of every death professional and their managers to prevent this stage. Funeral directors suffering symptoms of critical incident stress revealed that those in the group reporting increased symptomatology (30-39 years of age) were also most likely to “drop out” of the funeral business.
- The crossroads between help and hopelessness
“Charting” of normative stages reflects the understanding and conflict-resolution ability caregivers must develop so they can care humanely for dying people, build their capacity to help, and enjoy freedom from the incapacitating effects of burnout. Developed by Harper.
Schematic Growth and Development Scale in Coping with Professional anxieties in Terminal Illness
True or false:
It has been noted that the increased “kinship” between terminally ill patients and their network of caregivers results in death care professionals becoming “surrogate grievers.” This notion may soon be disabused as it becomes more widely recognized that caregivers’ grief is neither a substitute nor a replacement for a faraway family’s grief but an authentic response to loss - particularly if the person was in some way special or memorable in the professional’s life.
True
