Bethany C. DeMarco, BA, BSN, RN bethanydemarco@gmail.com
Research team: Bethany C. DeMarco, BA, BSN, RN, Jessica L. McDonald, BS, BSN, RN;
Dan Van Leuven, BS, BSN, RN; Tara Shaw, BS, BSN, RN.
Special Thanks to Beverly Sesters, DNP for facilitating our participation in the AHNA
Conference, the Reflection Room and research survey.
Caring is fundamental to the nursing practice, but is often compromised by burnout
experienced by nurses. Previous studies demonstrate the need for self-care in the
nursing population (Chow & Kalischuck, 2008), and relate lack of self-care to burnout
experienced by nurses (Brathovde, 2006; Johns 2004), as well as compromised caring
and quality of care for patients (Behrendt, 2008). Nurses may not have the appropriate
training or resources available to deal with work-related stressors (Brathovde, 2006).
The recovery of the ‘disease’ of burnout in nurses may result in increased quality of
patient care (Benner & Wrubel, 1989). Self-care is an essential component in nurses’
recovery from burnout. Although previous studies have demonstrated the need for
nursing or student nursing self care (Chow & Kalischuk, 2008), research does not
specifically address the holistic nursing population who actively seeks education about
nursing self-care at the AHNA annual conference. The specific aim of this study is to
measure the self-care status of AHNA nurses who attended the annual 2010 AHNA
conference and to determine if self-care is related to their overall health. Self-care is
central to AHNA according to Core Value 3, holistic nurses engage in self-care in order to
“better serve self and others” (ANA, 2007), thus AHNA’s Annual Conference was chosen
as the setting. The population studied met the minimum inclusion criteria of being a
registered nurse (R.N.), an attendee of the AHNA 2010 conference, and a participant in
the Reflection Room (RR). Read more at : www.ahna.org/Research/WebLibrary/ArticleLibrary/tabid/6897/Default.aspx#...