Adaptation and continuous learning: integrative review of coping strategies of palliative care professionals

SAGE Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Prof. María Arantzamendi (Institute for Culture and Society, ATLANTES, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain). Coping is essential to manage the challenges that palliative care professionals face in their daily clinical work and most well-known explanations focus on emotion or problem-based coping. Many of the studies about coping tend to focus on its effect and consequences. The last review about coping in palliative1 care used a dichotomous approach for influential factors (risk or protective), professional and personal strategies. Coping can include a variety of strategies from proactive coping, self-care based coping, self-transforming coping and encountering deep professional meaning. Specific training, healthcare team, professional motivation and family were found to be sometimes protective and other times risk factors. Emotional burden and the systemic or administrative factors always appear as risk factors. Throughout a dynamic adaptation and learning process over time, coping strategies and influencing factors become intertwined; impacting on professional and personal development throughout the career. Palliative care professionals coping strategies evolve and change, being intrinsically related to a progressive and greater response capacity with respect to emotionally demanding situations. Coping mechanisms in palliative care imply a personal and professional development, extending beyond the management of emotions and problems, or the separation between personal and environment aspects. The professional development is a central pillar in training on providing healthcare to others and can be promoted through training self-awareness. The coping process seemed to be linked to the development of professional careers in palliative care.