Looking after #1: an innovative approach to improving the self-care of remote health professionals

Remote health professionals face unique challenges. They often work in geographical, professional, and social isolation as well as in cross-cultural contexts. Reducing burn-out and improving professional satisfaction through enhanced self-care practices may be key to improving the enduring problem of retention of high quality remote health professionals and improving remote health care. This innovative workshop, based on a robust theory of self-regulation, offers participants an opportunity to re-think self-care by proposing that conflicting individual goals are central to the experience of stress and burnout. Workshop participants will: learn about the theory through engaging activities and demonstrations; identify important individual goals; and develop effective plans to achieve greater goal clarity leading to enhanced satisfaction and resilience.
Presenter: Professor Tim Carey is the Director of the Centre for Remote Health and a clinical psychologist practicing in remote Australia. He has over 100 publications and regularly mentors and supervises health professionals in remote settings. He has delivered this workshop to health professionals in remote Australia and has conducted training workshops in Australia, the UK, and Canada.
Resources and format: The resources include a participant workbook and a powerpoint presentation including youtube vignettes. The format is activity based incorporating small group and whole group discussions as well as time for individual reflections.
Objectives: The workshop will provide participants with opportunities to: clarify what self-care means to them; learn about a model of self-regulated functioning and its implications for self-care; identify barriers to effective self-care; and develop a plan for robust and sustainable self-care.

This abstract was presented at the Innovative Solutions in Remote Healthcare - 'Rethinking Remote' conference, 23-24 May 2016, Inverness, Scotland.