Cuidados con Compasión: A tool for heatlh professionals to face COVID-19

“Cuidados con Compasión” is a web environment aimed at health professionals that emerged as a result of a research project, funded by the Regional Goverment of Andalucía,  Health and Families Department “Burnout and Compassionate Fatigue in Nursing Professionals in the Andalusian Public Health System” (AP-0100-2016).

This project is led by the principal researcher and professor at the University of Almeria, María Dolores Ruiz Fernández, a nurse and psychologist, belonging to the Department of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medicine and a member of the research group in Health Sciences (CTS-451).

Web resource

The website aims to provide resources for health professionals and students in the health field that will improve their quality of life, and prevent certain syndromes suffered by health professionals such as compassion fatigue. In addition, to disseminate and publicize the news, and the main research results related to the study.

As a consequence of the current crisis derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided, together with the crisis intervention group of the University of Alicante, led by Professor of Psychology Miguel Richard, to launch a series of initiatives to provide emotional support to health professionals and to those groups that are in the front line of action, who need resources and tools to overcome this situation and carry out their daily work.

We are referring to professionals who are going through very extreme situations that generate fear, fear of contagion, fear of infecting their families, that force them to separate from their children and most beloved relatives, they go through situations of loss, loneliness, anger, rage, anxiety, among other feelings and emotions.

From here, it was decided to develop materials such as:

• recommendations with computer graphics to manage anxiety at home and at work.
• audios that can be used anywhere and help professionals to take conscious breaks, even at work.
• videos with advice given by health professionals.

Workshops/Seminars

Every week, a workshop or seminar is offered, with experts in different subjects at a national and international level, so that professionals can visualize them at any time of the day. In these workshops, topics such as:

• compassion, self-pity, guilt, the attitude of giving and receiving, etc.

Currently, there are available on the page seminars given by different professionals:

“Although you are a hero you have to take care of yourself” given by Ángela María Ortega Galán and Juan Diego Ramos Pichardo, both professors at the Nursing Department of the University of Huelva;

“How to manage fear and anxiety” by Professor Miguel Richard (Professor of Psychology at the University of Alicante)

“Self-care and Self-pity” by Concha Ruiz Pau (Physician, member of the Spanish Society of Palliative Care and of the spirituality working group of the Andalusian Society of Palliative Care),

“Accompanying and living grief in isolation” by Ernolando Parra (Psychologist of the Community of Madrid).

Another of the resources available is a blog of experiences, in which professionals describe the situation they are living through and reflect on what is happening. “Sharing experiences is a great help, both for those who write and those who read them, it helps us to empathise” said Professor María Dolores Ruiz Fernández.

It should be noted that this “Cuidados Compasión” research group has a track record in the field of health care. They are part of the Research Group on “Bioethics and Humanisation of Health Care in the Andalusian Public Health System” and are supported by scientific societies such as ASANEC (Andalusian Association of Community Nurses) and ASENOHA (Association of Nurses in Hospitals in Andalusia) and various health institutions.

More information

Website