In Response to: Self-compassion in practice

Dear Dr. Gelinas, Editor,

I am writing in reference to the September 2024 issue and the article “Self-compassion in practice” (Lundeen & Perkins, 2024). The idea of incorporating self-care and situational awareness into training for nurses is an excellent way to support new nurses and promote mental health during the nursing career. Nursing has long been a career based on providing compassionate care to others; however, many nurses do not identify the need to care for themselves. Nurses may not know exactly what self-care behaviors entail. An article by Varghese et al. (2021) describes the decline in mental health conditions in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the nurses being evaluated exhibiting increased reported episodes of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and insomnia. Nurses must frequently deal with an emergent situation and then immediately move to another room to provide care for the next patient. There is frequently no time to decompress in the middle of the workday and once arriving home, the stressors of domestic life also build upon the trauma of the shift. Though a novel concept, by allowing themselves a moment during their shift to provide inward compassion and recharge their external compassion, nurses at all care levels will promote health for both themselves as well as their next patient.

I have no personal or financial interest in this subject matter.

Marti K. Andries, MSN, ANP-BC, FNP-BC, CWCN-AP
Lafayette, LA

Reference:

Varghese, A., George, G., Kondaguli, S., Naser, A., Khakha, D., & Chatterji, R. (2021). Decline in the mental health of nurses across the globe during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Global Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.11.05009