Congress Abstracts 2006

86

EMPOWERING ONCOLOGY NURSES TO USE SELF-CARE STRATEGIES. Christina Kirk, RN, OCN^®, Kate Kravits, RN, MA, and Randi McAllister-Black, PhD, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA.

Recent research on stress management for nurses recommends creating tailored programs for nurses and highlights the importance of researching what type of intervention is most effective (Kash, et. al., 2000; Mimura and Griffiths, 2003). The Nursing Wellness Program is a new intervention designed to prevent burnout and increase self-care. Theoretically and methodologically sound stress management program for oncology nurses are needed.

Oncology nurses face unique stressors in their work environment such as working with critically ill and dying patients, meeting the needs of families and working with highly complex equipment. The consequence of failing to cope with the demands of a profession that actively interacts with life and death issues are profound. This syndrome is often referred to as burnout. The purpose of this project is to improve the coping of nurses in the face of chronic stressors. Empowering nursing staff by teaching wellness strategies will decrease their level of stress and burnout.

The program is an evidence-based collaborative project between psychology and nursing designed to create and test a specific nursing intervention. The course utilizes information from psychoneuroimmunology, cognitive-behavioral psychology and art therapy. It also includes material on the risks of chronic stress, behavioral practice of wellness strategies, self-monitoring, and creation of personalized wellness plans. This program is organized into six one-hour sessions and was initially integrated into the new graduate program. Twenty-seven new graduates completed the first course. The program will be available to 300 in-patient nurses at our institution in 2006.

Pre and post assessment includes the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Person in the Rain art technique, as well as course and faculty evaluations. Nurses complete a wellness plan at the end of the course and then follow-up data is gathered at six and twelve months.

Pre-course data from the Nursing Wellness Program suggest that that our nurses are highly stressed and will benefit from wellness plans, and post-course data indicates that the course has been well received. The presenter will address specific long-term follow-up data for the first year.