Self-care for Health Care Professionals During Disaster Response
Taking care of yourself will help you to stay focused on taking care of others. Often health professionals and other responders do not recognize the need to take care of themselves and to monitor their own emotional and physical health during their involvement with disasters -- especially when recovery efforts stretch into several weeks. This can cause some responders to experience unnecessary consequences such as burnout (PDF) or compassion fatigue (PDF).
The following guidelines contain simple methods for self-care during disaster response. Read them while you are involved in health care disaster work, and during the period after the disaster.
- Pace yourself. Rescue and recovery efforts at the site may continue for days or weeks.
- Take frequent rest breaks (PDF). Rescue and recovery operations take place in extremely dangerous work environments. Mental fatigue over long shifts can place health care workers at greatly increased risk for poor decision-making and treatment lapses.
- Watch out for each other. Approach the disaster as a team (PDF) and rely on other professionals for consultation and perspective and support.
- Be conscious of those around you. Health care responders who are exhausted, feeling stressed, or even temporarily distracted may place themselves and others at risk (PDF) .
- Maintain as normal a schedule as possible: regular eating and sleeping are crucial. Adhere to the team schedule and rotation.
- Maintain adequate nutrition (PDF) and try to eat a variety of foods and increase your intake of complex carbohydrates (e.g. breads and muffins made with whole grains, granola bars).
- Stay hydrated (PDF), with clean water and juices.
- Whenever possible, distance yourself from the disaster (PDF) site to maintain boundaries and achieve perspective. Eat and drink in the cleanest area available. Communicate with your loved ones at home as frequently as possible.
- Give yourself permission to feel rotten: You are in a difficult situation.
- Recurring thoughts, dreams, or flashbacks are normal-- do not try to fight them. These responses to trauma will decrease over time and paying less attention to them will break the cycle of anxiety.
- Recognize and accept what you cannot change -- the chain of command, organizational structure, waiting, equipment failures, etc. Practice spirituality even in this difficult time.
- Accept that your “hidden wounds and hidden healing" (PDF) as you respond to the disaster are yours, and keep appropriate boundaries around how you involve others in your experience. There are some pieces of your experience that you will want to share, and some that you will want to forget. But if the disaster facility includes mental health support, consider using it.
- Participate in memorials, rituals, and use of symbols (PDF) as a way to express feelings
Web Links
CDC and NIOSH Traumatic Incident Stress Info
Disaster Response and Recovery Handbook (PDF)