The COVID-19 pandemic has placed healthcare systems worldwide under unprecedented strain. Caregivers are facing extraordinary physical and psychological challenges that will affect individuals in manifestly different ways and its impact will likely vary widely.
The ability of healthcare leaders to address their staff’s trauma and stress will be essential to their organization’s long-term viability as it affects the future of patient outcomes and team performance. This thought leadership paper introduces a three-part strategy to manage caregiver stress and trauma.
This paper is part of the Siemens Healthineers Insights Series - the New Normal. It provides ideas and solutions on 'Improving Patient Experience' and has been co-authored with James S. Gordon, MD, Founder and Executive Director at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM).
How to manage trauma and stress relief? - Key learnings
A three-part strategy healthcare providers can implement toward resilience-building:
- Embrace mental and physical self-care using mind-body techniques
- Learn and experience within expert-led small group programs
- 'Train - the - Trainer' program to sustain the benefits of mind-body health
A deeper understanding of how stress and trauma can affect healthcare professionals and the successful implementation of strategies toward resilience-building is essential to protect caregivers in order to improve the patient experience.
About James S. Gordon, MD
James S. Gordon, MD, author of “The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma”, is a world-recognized authority on post-traumatic stress and a mind-body medicine pioneer. A longtime researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and a Clinical Professor at Georgetown Medical School, he was chairman (under Presidents Clinton and GW Bush) of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. As Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist, has created and implemented the world’s largest and most effective program for healing population-wide psychological trauma and dealing with chronic stress. He and his global faculty of 140 have brought this evidence-based program of self-care and group support to more than 6,000 health professionals and the institutions in which they work, as well as to communities in the U.S. and overseas.
