Keeping the Spotlight on Psychological Health and Safety

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY BCNU's new personal resiliency education program is designed to provides participants with effective tools and protocols to settle their nervous systems.

The nursing profession is a demanding one, with no shortage of physical and psychological hazards. BCNU members are exposed to trauma, violence and patient suffering on a daily basis. Today's health-care workplace is especially challenging given the demands that come from providing care during an opioid crisis, a global pandemic, in extreme heat, amid wildfires, and in crowded facilities with challenging staffing levels.

These factors and others can impact employee psychological health and safety at work and result in psychological injury. And yet nurses and other health-care workers generously dedicate their time to providing care and giving their emotional energy to others, sometimes at the expense of their own physical and mental wellbeing.

Meanwhile, the stressors on the health-care system continue to grow.

BCNU's executive councillor for health and safety Aida Herrera knows that nurses need more support.

"We've seen the public marvel at the strength, perseverance and dedication of BCNU members, and that gives us strength," she says. "Even though we appreciate the praise and kind gestures from the public and the government, and the banging of pots and pans, we need to recognize that nurses are not superheroes, and they're not made of steel," she stresses.

"The truth is, nurses are human beings like anyone else and in these past 19 months we've all heard their cries for help!" she says. "Our nurses are exhausted, and when working conditions don't allow them to provide safe patient care and meet their professional standards, they experience moral distress and trauma that's affecting their physical and mental wellbeing."

Herrera says nurses are tired of not being recognized in a meaningful way – and this has to change.

"Members are feeling a need to replenish their personal emotional energy."

- BCNU executive councillor Aida Herrera

Many nurses have stated they are seeking safe work environments that meet their physical and psychological needs," she reports. "They want real solutions to the staffing crisis, such as safe nurse staffing levels, more and easy access to mental health supports, and better and simplified reporting systems that don't add on to their psychological injury and trauma."

Herrera says the members she's spoken to are feeling a need to replenish their personal emotional energy and a need for improved work-life balance. And in response to this call, she is proud to report that BCNU is enhancing its member personal resilience and mental wellness supports.

"This year, the union partnered with renowned somatic educators Anita Chari and Angelica Singh to create new personal resiliency resources for BCNU members and staff titled Embodying Your Practice," she says.

Embodying Your Practice is designed to bring relief from the overwhelm by giving program participants effective tools and protocols to settle their nervous systems. These tools can immediately be incorporated into nurses' daily lives, whether on their way to work, at home, while organizing charts on a shift, or getting ready to leave work at the end of the day.

The program was launched in June with a series of webinars that saw members examine principles of nervous system regulation, trauma-informed practice, and equity and inclusion work to help them cultivate personal resilience (see sidebar).

Embodying Your Practice continues in August and through August 2022 with an on-demand personal resiliency course, Introduction to Embodying Your Practice, that refines the skills taught in the webinars. Open to all BCNU members, the on-demand course helps participants settle their nervous systems by recognizing and navigating feelings of overwhelm, trauma, and burnout. It also assists the practice of nervous system regulation by helping to build and sustain feelings of calm, even in the midst of the challenges nurses are facing today.

This fall, BCNU member leaders (such as regional occupational health and safety representatives, mental health representatives, enhanced disability employee representatives, full-time stewards, and stewards-at-large) will be encouraged to participate in Foundations of Embodying Your Practice, a blended learning curriculum that strengthens personal resiliency practices and explores co-regulation and nervous system practices in community. Additionally, participants will deepen their awareness of BCNU's personal resiliency resources and build skills to help members navigate the resources and supports available to them.

A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Supporting personal resilience and mental wellness are critical for preventing the overwhelm and burnout that comes from exposure to stress and trauma. But systemic factors in the workplace that impact psychological safety and mental wellbeing also require continual improvement and attention.

BCNU remains committed to building a systems approach to psychological health and safety in the workplace. That means ensuring health employers implement the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace that was negotiated into the Nurses' Bargaining Association collective agreement, and which outlines 13 foundational elements to building a psychologically safe environment.

Systemic change takes time, however, and progress has been slow on the provincial committee that was formed in 2017 to understand the state of psychological health and safety (PHS) in BC health care.

Part of this work involves the promotion and use of Guarding Minds at Work, a comprehensive assessment tool to understand the current state of PHS in the workplace.

"Employers must promote staff participation in the Guarding Minds at Work survey, communicate how the analyzed data will be reported back to employees and outline the steps the organization will take in the implementation process," explains Herrera, adding that survey results are to be shared and action planning should occur at the provincial and local levels to strengthen workplace PHS.

Herrera stresses that local initiatives should be consultative and invite worker participation as the workplace organization strives to continuously improve PHS through the prevention of psychological harm, the promotion of workplace wellness, and resolving hazards that have the potential to impact employees' psychological safety.

She notes that the continuous improvement cycles of "Plan – Do – Check – Act" are at their best when they include representatives from all areas in the workplace and reports that BCNU is offering education on the National Standard on PHS to prepare members for employer engagement activities and consultations.

"We recognize systemic change is slow and that incidents impacting member physical and psychological safety still occur regularly," says Herrera.

"But BCNU is committed to responding to member queries and will continue to work with regional mental health representatives to build psychological health and safety awareness and supports."

Watch for more information on psychological safety and mental wellness in BCNU's twice-weekly eNews and ahead of World Mental Health Day, October 10, 2021. •

UPDATE (Summer/Fall 2021)

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