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
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
AHRQ COVID-19 Resources Target Infection Prevention and Emotional Well-Being for Both Staff and Residents
Three new online resources from AHRQ are available to help nursing homes adopt best practices aimed at controlling and preventing infection and improving the emotional well-being of staff and residents.
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
Work-Life Balance for the Director of Nursing Services
The vital role of DNS in skilled nursing facilities comes with so many demands. Because of the responsibility the job requires, work-life balance often seems unattainable. However, every leader deserves a break to recharge and reenergize, so they can be their best selves and lead their teams most effectively. This article will provide tips on how to increase the balance that every DNS needs. Read Article
How Comfort Theory Can Help Ease Burnout and Improve Well-Being in Nursing Home Staff
All long-term and post-acute care staff can benefit from improved self-care. Better self-care is needed to recharge and re-energize. Throughout the pandemic, increased worry and strain has contributed to higher rates of staff burnout and turnover in skilled nursing facilities. Without healthy habits, there is no way of resolving this tension. Learn how to promote well-being and happiness in staff. Read Blog
Handling Loss and Working Through Grief in Nursing Homes
The loss nursing home staff members have experienced over the last two years has been unprecedented. Many have lost well-loved friends, family members, and residents—and nearly all have had their sense of normalcy upended. Healthcare professionals have been so busy battling the virus daily that most haven’t had time to process the emotional effects the fight has inflicted. This article examines grief and ways to help facility leadership manage that grief, for both themselves and staff. Read Article
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
Tips for the New Year to Get and Stay Organized
Is your New Year’s resolution to organize and transform your office into a clutter-free zone, or to find time in each day to accomplish all the things that life coaches promise you can achieve if you purchase their books and organizational tools? Or would you rather take things a little slower? If so, read this article for suggestions on ways to ease into the new year. Read Article
Showing Staff Appreciation During the Holidays
Throughout the year, staff have been resilient and stayed the course, providing quality care to the residents who need it. Read this article for suggestion on proactive approaches the nurse leader can use to show staff appreciation, which can help to aid in retention and combat burnout during the holiday season. Read Article
How to Take a Vacation When You’re the NAC
With staffing shortages and specific, regulation-mandated job duties, nurse assessment coordinators (NACs) today may feel that taking time for vacation just isn’t possible. Read this article for some strategies NACs can use to achieve time off and have a stress-free vacation away from work. Read Article
Interventions to Promote Staff Recovery After Experiencing the COVID-19 Pandemic
Do you know if this is how your staff feels? If so, what plans do you have in place to help staff cope with all the struggles of the pandemic? This article discusses how to identify staff who are struggling and why interventions to promote coping and recovery are necessary. 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
What Can The Great Depression Teach us About Resiliency
There have been days where my “caring well” has completely run dry, and there is nothing left over for me. I’m quite sure many of you have been in the same situation; probably a lot more than usual this year. However, we need to find a way to overcome this emotional drought so that we can provide the best care for our residents and each other. Read Blog
10 Tips for Cultivating Resiliency in Facility Staff
As part of the management team, the director of nursing services (DNS) needs to be able to measure their facility staff’s emotional health and aid them to adapt or “bounce back” from adversity. In other words, the DNS needs to cultivate resilience. This article will assist the DNS and other nurse leaders to have a better understanding of what resilience looks like and will provide tips on how to encourage staff to build resilience and find strength in this difficult time. Read Article
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
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Self-Care Podcast
In this podcast, AAPACN Curriculum Development Specialist, Alexis Roam, MSN, RN-BC, DNS-CT, QCP, discusses some of the warning signs of burnout and compassion fatigue and offers some practical tips to help you recharge and refresh with self-care. Listen to Podcast
Overcoming Burnout and Compassion Fatigue with Self-Care
Take a look at some situations that can lead to burnout and compassion fatigue, what symptoms you need to recognize to know that you are experiencing these two debilitating stress-related conditions, and ways that you can practice self-care, which not only attributes to better care for yourself, but also can help you provide better care for your residents and your fellow nurses. Read Blog
AAPACN Tool: Leadership Tips to Support Employees During a Crisis
Staff are more overwhelmed than ever, resources are scarce, and typical routines have been disrupted. The tips and resources below will assist the nurse leader to formulate a response that supports staff during a time of crisis. Access Tool
Engaging Residents and Overcoming Loneliness during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
There is a lot happening in their environment that is unfamiliar, and nurse leaders have the difficult job of ensuring residents’ physical safety while also addressing the importance of combating resident loneliness. Here are some insights, resources, and ideas that nurse leaders can utilize to improve person-centered care and resident well-being. Read Article
AHRQ COVID-19 Articles: Peer Support/Crisis Communications and Helping LTC Settings Deal With the Pandemic
To address the negative psychological impacts faced by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis, the authors of this commentary recommend three strategic principles for healthcare institutions responding to the pandemic. As well as measures to ensure the safety of long-term care patients. Read Article
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.
National Academy of Medicine: Resources to Support the Health and Well-Being of Clinicians During COVID-19 Outbreak
National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience has compiled a number of resources to offer more information on how to support the health and well-being of clinicians providing health care during the COVID-19 outbreak.
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: CARING FOR OUR CAREGIVERS DURING COVID-19
Access the AMA website for a variety of wellness information and resources to support physicians and healthcare personnel.
Staff Wellness Resources
- January 22, 2021 – Coping with Stress
- December 23, 2020 – Employees: How to Cope with Job Stress and Build Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- December 16, 2020 – Healthcare Personnel and First Responders: How to Cope with Stress and Build Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- May 19, 2020 – What Workers and Employers Can Do to Manage Workplace Fatigue during COVID-19
- April 14, 2020 – Self-Care Resources from The Foundation for PALTC Medicine
- March 18, 2020 – Mental Health Considerations during COVID-19 Outbreak
- March 15, 2020 – Strategies for Mitigating the Emotional Impact of COVID-19
- Mini Modules to Relieve Stress For Healthcare Workers Responding to COVID-19: Stress Management Exercise