Taking Care Of Yourself And Your Patients

Those of us who have been part of the nursing community in El Cajon and elsewhere know that there’s more to it than just being a well-trained caregiver.

It can consist of providing physical, mental and emotional support and assistance, day in and day out. It’s working with clients sometimes at their worst and helping them with tasks they can’t do themselves. It’s doing all of this regardless of how you feel on any particular day, whether you’re excited to give your all or feeling worn out because you already gave your all and then you were asked to give more.

The team at Accredited Home Care is always happy to find qualified LVNs eager to work with clients. We’ve been a dependable source of care for residents of Southern California for more than 40 years, and each week, more than 2,500 caregivers and licensed clinicians help thousands of clients remain independent in their homes.

Sometimes, a client may already have a caregiver who is a trusted family member or friend, but we can provide additional services for them including respite care, light housework, assistance with errands, meal preparation or a variety of therapies such as massage.

Or, clients and their families may sometimes seek our help for regular or occasional caregiving assistance, sometimes for basic nursing services, some more advanced care such as wound management.

With so many options available for clients and a growing population that will need nursing care in the future, we’re always going to need new employees willing to share their skills with our organization. At the same time, we also want to always make our existing employees feel appreciated, valued and satisfied in what’s expected of them.

We’ve received a variety of awards over the years for being a great place to work, and we want to make sure we continue this commitment to our people and our clients going forward. We are honored to have recently received Forbes “America’s Best-In-State Employers for 2019”. According to the article:

“Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to pinpoint the organizations liked best by employees in our first-ever ranking of America’s best employers by state. The ranking is divided into 51 lists: one for each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.”

To determine the list, Statista surveyed 80,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. All the surveys were anonymous, allowing participants to openly share their opinions. The respondents were asked to rate, on a scale of zero to 10, how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others. Statista then asked respondents to nominate organizations in industries outside their own.

Identifying burn out

We know that we have some great people working for us, but even the best health care professionals can get worn out and suffer from burnout over time. It’s definitely something real and a challenge to nurses. Sometimes people feel overwhelmed with too many clients, too many duties and procedures, and too much paperwork. They may get tired of certain clients or certain situations and feel a lack of interest or too much stress.

In some cases, burnout can be caused by simply focusing too much on other people instead of yourself.

Too much burnout or burnout that goes on too long can lead to all sorts of negatives, from unhappy home life to unhappy clients to mistakes. It can also lead to depression or in some cases leaving the profession — which is a shame since many nurses are where they are because they do care about people so much.

Caregivers are also especially susceptible to burnout. Professionals may do their best to provide a better quality of life for their clients but might find it easy to lose sight of their own.

Caregivers who haven’t have medical training also begin to have less time for themselves if they’re always taking care of someone else, along with related feelings.

That’s why taking time for self-care is vital.

Focusing on Self-care

Luckily, because burnout is so common in various medical fields, there are a variety of strategies that can help. These can also be used to encourage your peers or caregivers you know to look for ways to find the positives.

• Find ways to focus on you. Even if your regular routine involves working closely with one or multiple clients, it can benefit you to take some time for yourself after work or at least on a day off or the weekend. Do something fun not related to your medical skills or training. This can be something social with friends or something solo where you get to decide what to do, where to go and what to do there.
• Find ways to ‘escape.’ Clearly, leaving the home without your client isn’t the best idea, even if the idea may sound appealing on the more stressful days. But looking into respite care can make this a good solution. In this case, a trained employee will come over to watch your client for a few hours or even all day. This will give you the opportunity to do something to clear your mind and refresh your batteries, and also give your client some time apart from you.
• Learn what others are doing. July 24 was International Self-Care Day, a global effort to encourage people to look for ways to brighten their lives and their communities. People all around the world are encouraged to find reasons to be positive and mindful, and share this information online and with those around them.

Please contact Accredited Home Care if you’d like to learn more about your employment options and how to get started helping others.