Is being a healthcare provider immunoprotective?

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Consider what George Fitchett, a professor at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, a chaplain specializing in the academic study of spiritual assessment, expresses and articulates in his work Assessing Spiritual Needs: A Guide for Caregivers.

We must be wise in our care for ourselves and others and especially discerning in the face of any problems. When something seems to be wrong, we must take care to discover what it is and find a remedy for it. When there are opportunities for enriching others' lives, we must respect who they are and work in partnership with them. (Fitchett, 2002, p. 22-23)

With spiritual awareness at the forefront of the following essay as a guidepost to the helping professions, most people understand arguably that most nurses, if not all, who entered the healthcare profession during the Vietnam era did so as a response to feeling the need to serve or the felt sense of being called to help (Hood, 2018, pp. 52-53). Successfully navigating an accredited university and training program or obtaining the career track of an associate degree in nursing and passing the national licensure examination requires an undaunted constitution even today. As the profession seeks ways to meet the demand of nursing staff shortages as those same individuals who entered some four to five decades ago (Hood, 2018, p. 80) are now retiring.

In addition to the rigor and unforgiving nature inherent to passing the licensure requirements and persevering and enduring applying for and interviewing for professional career opportunities, most nurses, even today, willingly choose to follow their calling that does not nullify the lived experiences of those nurses who have cared for the most critically ill in our nation's hospitals contributing to the phenomena of professional burn out.

Nevertheless, as other professional academics have written, burning out is not a new concept. According to Kelly et al. (2021), nurses, in general, those involved in direct patient care, not including, for instance, case managers or leaders or hospital education staff nurses, experience professional lassitude, commonly known as burning out.

Nurses experience such descriptions as professional fatigue, mental dysfunction, and sometimes intent to leave the profession, with a jaundiced eye toward the work. It is essential that those who care for others also have resources and can perform self-care.

According to European scholars Callaghan & Waldock (2009), the Oxford Handbook of Mental Health Nursing editors explain the diverse definition of culture. What is known is that people come from many backgrounds that structure their way of living, including but not limited to their personal beliefs and values, the traditions and practices they were taught or learned, including ways of acting and behaving, and their social interactions with people like themselves and of different backgrounds and how to interpret the world around them. As such, one's culture is considered when engaging with those seeking mental health services. Suffice it to state that healthcare providers are not undifferentiated regarding the influence of their cultural background, and the crossroads of culture and mental health in healthcare providers is a topic of increasing visibility.

As a cue and urging for those interacting with mental health service seekers, providers, laypersons, and even leaders can and should be cognizant of and appreciate the diversity of others and work towards achieving faculty and competency in serving them because others have fundamental needs, longings, and hopes for their well-being. In addition, being aware of one's biases can be a barrier to helping those seeking mental health services (Callaghan & Waldock, 2009). Nurses are not immune to the effects of living that others experience, and being a nurse does not automatically ensure immunity from the ailments that affect us all.

Consider the self-care applications and strategies available for nurses who care for those patients who enter the stream needing mental health services. Can those same strategies be applicable, fitting, and relevant to nurses, doctors, and other allied health professionals, or does the profession of helping others give those providers immunity and resistance or embody them impervious to the challenges of life that all encounter?

References:

Callaghan, P., & Waldock, H. (2009). Oxford Handbook of Mental Health Nursing. Oxford University Press.

Fitchett, G. (2002). Assessing spiritual needs: A guide for caregivers. Academic Renewal Press.

Hood, L. J. (2018). Leddy & Pepper's professional nursing (9th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. 

Kelly, L. A., Gee, P. M., & Butler, R. J. (2021). Impact of nurse burnout on organizational and position turnover. Nursing Outlook, 69(1), 96–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2020.06.008