Wellness for LTPAC Professionals
Take Charge of Your Well-Being and Wellness!
It comes as no surprise that the work you do as a post-acute care professionals can impact your health and well-being in many ways. There are steps you can take to improve your health and well-being. AAPACN can provide resources, tools, and community connections to help you take action to reverse burnout and promote wellness for LTPAC professionals.
WELLNESS WEDNESDAY CHALLENGE! We challenge you to introduce healthy living habits and initiatives that you can incorporate into your lives. Each week during the Wellness Wednesday Challenge, introduce a new wellness practice — a small action you can take each day to improve your life. Try it out for a week. Keep the practices you like and leave the ones you don’t!
Self-Care Videos
AAPACN Wellness Resources
Self-Care and Why It Matters in Healthcare
Learn why self-care is not only essential for personal well-being but also critical for healthcare professionals to provide the best care for others. Whether you’re a nurse, administrator, or part of the healthcare leadership team, this conversation is packed with valuable insights on how to prioritize yourself in such a demanding field. Listen to Podcast
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Moral Injury: Keys to Prevention and Mitigation
Protecting and supporting the nursing home workforce is not optional—it is the daily work of managers and leaders, says Patricia McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS, senior advisor for safety at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), president of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety, and co-chair of the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety. Read Article
The Art of Delegation for the Director of Nursing Services: Safe Practices and Strategies to Overcome Common Challenges
The role of the director of nursing services (DNS) in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) can be stressful due to the number of competing priorities in each day. Delegation, when done properly, can help relieve some stressors while ensuring tasks are completed. Read Blog
Achieving Strong Resident Quality of Life Starts With Better Staff Management
“When you are running from fire to fire, it may seem like you don’t have enough time to implement the practices associated with culture change,” says McLaughlin. “However, culture change can increase your staff’s efficiency. The better that staff know and support the resident, the less time that is wasted on, for example, care plan interventions that don’t align with the resident’s goals, preferences, or unmet needs.” Read Article
How to Lead the Team When Everyone is Tired
With a long-lasting pandemic, staff shortages, increased federal reporting requirements, and survey changes in 2022, and new MDS changes in the year to come, one thing is certain—everyone is tired. This article will share tips on how the DNS can keep going, overcome fatigue, and lead the team forward in the new year. Read Article
4 Tips for Surviving the Mental Load of the NAC’s Job
The nurse assessment coordinator’s (NAC’s) job is mentally taxing. There is so much to keep track of. This blog will offer NACs working in long-term care tips to help offset the cognitive load of their jobs so they can steadily navigate their position without feeling overwhelmed. Read Blog
Burnout: How Can Nurse Leadership Help?
Nurse leaders are acutely aware that nurses who suffer from burnout are more likely to make errors in patient care, have more accidents on the job, and suffer from depression. Leaders worrying about burnout amongst their staff are asking, “What can I do to help?” This blog post offers real-world strategies to help leaders during staffing shortages as burnout reaches epidemic proportions. Read Blog
Turnover and Retention of the Director of Nursing Services (DNS) Position
Turnover and Retention of the Director of Nursing Services (DNS) Position
Retaining the DNS requires a multifaceted approach that fosters a healthy work-life balance, acknowledges their value as the clinical nurse leader, reinforces a supportive relationship with the nursing home administrator, and provides the resources necessary to meet the expectations and responsibilities of the job. Read Article
Self-Care for Peak Performance – Nursing In-service Education
Participants will learn to discuss why self-care is important for staff who work in post-acute care, describe three attributes for caring staff, describe recommended servings from each of the major food groups, list at least five benefits of physical activity, discuss the process for self-assessing how well basic needs are met, and describe at least three strategies that can be used to facilitate self-appraisal. Access Tool
Reset Your Nurse Leadership Skills and Abilities
Have you ever stopped to ask, “How did life amidst a pandemic affect my ability to be a good nurse leader in post-acute care or any healthcare setting?” It’s very possible that the stress of the pandemic impacted how you approached your work. Read Blog
The Road to Recovery
It’s important to remember that stressful times require periods of recovery. Now, more than ever before, LTC staff need to be able to decompress and de-stress. Nurse leaders can help staff by building a roadmap to recovery. Read Blog
Mental Health Tips for Long-Term Care Professionals
Nurses may be feeling stressed, tired, overwhelmed, or depressed by the hard decisions they must make every day and the situations they observe. To help long-term care nurses during this difficult time, AAPACN offers the following mental health tips that nurses can implement today. Read Blog
A Renewal of Faith and Moment of Calm
In this blog, AAPACN member Julie Helling, BSN, RN, tells of a moment where a hospice resident renewed her faith and restored her calm amid stress and difficult times. Read Blog
Other Resources
ASPR TRACIE Disaster Behavioral Health Self Care for Healthcare Workers Modules
ASPR TRACIE coordinated the development of these resources to assist with issues related to disaster behavioral health (DBH), provider self-care, suicide prevention, and compassion fatigue. These modules are designed for healthcare workers in all settings.
Staff Wellness Resources
- January 22, 2021 – Coping with Stress
- October 6, 2022 – Tips to Improve Your Emotional Well-Being