Self-preservation: confronting the issue of nurse impairment

Recognition of valuable natural resources suggests a need to accept a degree of responsibility to preserve and nurture the commodity, and to prevent its destruction. Health care professionals generally embrace such an ethic with reference to the environment, the quality of living for clients, and the need to assume professional responsibility to provide effective helping services. Unfortunately, health professionals may not be as willing or seemingly as able to engage in preservation behavior for themselves or for peers. Self-preservation represents survival. Survival creates an opportunity to accomplish professional goals. Without active involvement in self-preservation efforts, and application of these same principles to peers, risk for burnout and impairment escalates dramatically. While all health care professionals are candidates for ongoing self-preservation efforts, this article will focus on the nursing profession's need to develop a variety of methodologies to address the impairment issue.