Assignment task:
Key Terms To Consider: - Burnout - Clinical supervision - Compassion fatigue - Emotional labour - Holistic self-care - Professional development - Resilience - Workplace stress
An effective way of developing self-awareness is to use questioning. To raise your awareness of some important issues, ask yourself the following questions, and then write down your responses as a nursing student (I would think this is around one-hundred words per question).
1. What kinds of values do I hold important as a framework for living? Where do these values come from? How do they inform my understanding of what it is to be a person in this world?
2. How has my family of origin influenced how I view the world? What values did my family hold as important? What do I see as important in family life?
3. What do I know about why I chose to be a nurse? Does this still hold true or have my ideas changed over time?
4. What are the pervading social attitudes towards people in mental distress or with mental illness? What are my beliefs about people in mental distress or with mental illness?
5. What experiences have I had that influence how I feel about people with mental illness?
Please then consider the following
Reflect on your personality style and unique characteristics:
A) How can these characteristics support you in your work?
B) How might these characteristics increase your vulnerability in your work?
Reflect on your supports as nurse within and outside of work:
C) What energizes you?
D) What calms you?
E) Who or what would you turn to if you did not feel you were coping?
F) How can you use these insights to support yourself during your nursing career?