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Textbook of Palliative Care pp 617–632Cite as

Self-Care and Palliative Care

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Abstract

Working in palliative care can be intensely demanding yet enormously rewarding. To enable health professionals to actively engage in this field of work, emphasis on appropriate self-care activities is essential. Participating in a variety of professional and personal practices assists staff to be effective in their roles as well as mitigating the possible effects of stress and burnout and avoiding the potential damaging impact of vicarious traumatization or compassion fatigue. This chapter explores the palliative care work environment and identifies potential stressors. A range of activities is suggested that have been shown to be effective in mitigating the impact of various occupational stressors.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Peter Huggard

  2. School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Jayne Huggard

Authors
  1. Peter Huggard
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  2. Jayne Huggard
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Huggard .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine,Palliative Care, HammondCare, The University of Sydney School of Medicine, Sydney, Australia

    Roderick Duncan MacLeod

  2. VUB-UGhent End-of-Life Care Research Group, Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care and Department of Clinical Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium

    Lieve Van den Block

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Huggard, P., Huggard, J. (2019). Self-Care and Palliative Care. In: MacLeod, R., Van den Block, L. (eds) Textbook of Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77740-5_44

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