Sapeta, P. (Paula)
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- How palliative care professionals develop coping competence through their career: a grounded theory.(2024) Centeno, C. (Carlos); Arantzamendi-Solabarrieta, M. (María); Belar, A. (Alazne); Sapeta, P. (Paula)ICS-ATLANTES Background: Palliative care professionals face emotional challenges when caring for patients with serious advanced diseases. Coping skills are essential for working in palliative care. Several types of coping strategies are mentioned in the literature as protective. However, little is known about how coping skills are developed throughout a professional career. Aim: To develop an explanatory model of coping for palliative care professionals throughout their professional career. Design: A grounded theory study. Two researchers conducted constant comparative analysis of interviews. Setting/participants: Palliative care nurses and physicians across nine services from Spain and Portugal (n = 21). Theoretical sampling included professionals who had not continued working in palliative care. Results: Professionals develop their coping mechanisms in an iterative five-stage process. Although these are successive stages, each one can be revisited later. First: commencing with a very positive outlook and emotion, characterized by contention. Second: recognizing one¿s own vulnerability and experiencing the need to disconnect. Third: proactively managing emotions with the support of workmates. Fourth: cultivating an integrative approach to care and understanding one¿s own limitations. Fifth: grounding, care on inner balance and a transcendent perspective. This is a transformative process in which clinical cases, teamwork, and selfcare are key factors. Through this process, the sensations of feeling overwhelmed can be reversed because the professional has come to understand how to care for themselves. Conclusions: The explicative model presents a pathway for personal and professional growth, by accumulating strategies that modulate emotional responses and encourage an ongoing passion for work.
- Adaptation and continuous learning: integrative review of coping strategies of palliative care professionals(SAGE Publications, 2021) Sapeta, P. (Paula); Centeno, C. (Carlos); Belar, A. (Alazne); Arantzamendi-Solabarrieta, M. (María)Background: Coping is essential to manage palliative care professionals’ challenges. The focus has been on the effects of coping mechanism; however, little is known about coping itself in palliative care. Aim: To synthesise evidence of coping strategies in palliative care professionals, and how different strategies play roles over time. Results: Thirty-one studies were included. Four main strategies with recurrent reference to time were found: (a) proactive coping, involving activities to achieve self-confidence and control situations and emotions; (b) self-care based coping, including self-protection and self-awareness activities, with behavioural disconnection; (c) self-transformation coping, involving activities to accept limits; and (d) encountering deep professional meaning, is a coping mechanism based on meaning, frequently considering the deepest meaning of work. The dynamic and influencing factors were training, team interaction, professional motivation and family. They were usually protective factors, though sometimes they represented risk factors. The emotional burden associated with healthcare and systemic stressors were always risk factors. An explanatory model describes a complex and dynamic process, in which everyday strategies and more introspective strategies are combined. Conclusions: The model showed a process of adaptation and learning to persevere in palliative care. It changes over time under factors and strategies, and evolves in a personal and professional transformation, parallel to the working life. It would be worth assessing coping in healthcare professionals who chose to leave palliative care and to investigate the reasons they did so and their coping mechanisms.
- Insight and inner peace in palliative care professionals after an art-therapy workshop focused on personal self-care. A preliminary experience(2021) Centeno, C. (Carlos); Arantzamendi-Solabarrieta, M. (María); Collete, N. (Nadia); Baños-Sesma, A. (Ana); Echarri-Iribarren, F. (Fernando); Sapeta, P. (Paula); Torres-Pérez-Solero, M.T. (María Teresa)Emotional exhaustion is a problem many palliative care professionals face during their activity. Art therapy is emotionally beneficial for palliative patients that experience suffering, but its impact on professionals¿ experience of suffering has not been researched. Aim:To examine the immediate reactions of professionals after an art therapy workshop focused on personal self-care, also considering previously used coping strategies. Design: A four-hour art therapy workshop was designed including a generic qualitative study of participants. Participants were palliative care professionals and their reactions were examined using an ad hoc questionnaire with open-ended questions. Descriptive analysis of quantitative variables and thematic analysis of open-ended questions were conducted. Results: Seventeen professionals participated voluntarily. They rated the workshop positively, using words like ¿calm¿ and ¿relaxation¿ to express the effects of the workshop, which they considered therapeutic and a source of self-awareness. For some, it allowed them to release emotions; for others, it enabled introspection and opened up a more elaborated emotional response. They thought artistic expression would be useful for their colleagues, or even for their own personal development. In the workshop, professionals opened up and explained how they face intense moments on a day-to-day basis: how they approach the situation, or how they try to control their surroundings; how they disconnect/dista