Restoring the Healer : Spiritual Self-Care for Health Care Professionals

Burn out. Two words that haunt those in high stress jobs, especially in the medical profession. Long hours and the literal life-and-death nature of the field creates expectations to not only be on call at all hours, but to be at one’s best, even at 3:00 AM after a twenty-hour shift. So much energy is devoted to the care of others that self-care is forgotten. Yet, more are noticing and research confirms that self-care is needed, not only for personal sanity but also for quality of work. Unwell medical professionals are not the best at treating others. And this self-care includes not just rest, food, and water, but a deeper care, one that tends the spiritual side as well. To both the spiritually active and the spiritually resistant, hospital chaplain William Dorman offers a guide to understand a more comprehensive, full-bodied self-care. Each chapter begins with case studies, concrete experiences that help unpack abstract concepts which bring much needed peace to stressed individuals. Dorman also structures each chapter to end with prayers and action steps, which offer more concrete ways to care for the self. From working as a hospital chaplain for over 18 years, and serving as the director of chaplaincy services for the largest integrated health care system in New Mexico, Rev. Dorman recognizes the stresses that come to those who have made it their profession to heal others. Healers need healing too-and this guide is the first step.