How nurses can cope with the trauma of COVID-19

The challenges facing nurses and nurse leaders are bigger and more urgent than ever before, and our guest for this episode is an expert on a topic that is on the minds of nearly every healthcare worker: how to process the collective trauma that has been inflicted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Dr. Diana Hendel is the former long-time CEO of Long Beach Memorial. In 2009, one of her employees shot two of his supervisors before taking his own life, an event that profoundly changed Diana as a leader and a person. She spent the next six years working to heal the organization and a result, becoming a student of organizational trauma, a topic she says isn’t widely understood.  After retiring from the hospital, Diana went on to launch an executive coaching and leadership practice to help other leaders who were dealing with this issue, and eventually wrote a memoir about her experience. She has now channeled her expertise into helping healthcare leaders and workers deal with the impact of COVID-19.  In this conversation, Diana and Dr. Nurse Dan talk about the difference between trauma and stress, the existential crisis facing nurses and frontline care providers and how leaders can help their employees through the unprecedented challenges of this time. Links to recommended reading:  Why Cope When You Can Heal? Why Cope When You Can Heal?: How Healthcare Heroes of COVID-19 Can Recover from PTSD (Amazon)  Responsible: A Memoir (Amazon) Trauma to Triumph: A Roadmap for Leading Through Disruption (Amazon)   Innovations for the Modern Nurse Leader: Team Mental Wellness  Wellness Partner Program hosted by Trusted Health & Ohio State University College of Nursing  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/diana-hendel