APRS Keynote: Healthy Coping During COVID-19: Why Self-Care is Vital for Healthcare Professionals

Students and professionals in helping professions are, by definition compassionate, caring, selfless, and giving. They are also ambitious, driven, and strive for excellence, occasionally, at their own expense. Helping professions are, by definition, service-driven careers and given the nature of the tasks associated with “providing a service” are more likely to be associated with stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout, in addition to facing the occupational hazards and critical incidents such as COVID-19. Yet, our education and training does not always include the core component of self-care in discussions of career counseling, supervision, and leadership development. COVID-19 has impacted mental health of patients and caregivers in a myriad of ways. This interactive presentation will explore how critical incidents like COVID-19 can negatively impact student and licensed pharmacists’ mental health. A review of the concepts of stress, compassion fatigue, burnout, and professional impairment will be included as well as how the concept of self-care is a protective factor. The session will also outline how self-care is a vital component of professional development. The session will also explore how to assess and utilize self-care as a tool in effective supervision and leadership development.