Dealing with Chronic Stress in Critical Care

Ashley Liebig is a senior flight nurse and helicopter rescue specialist with STAR Flight.

She talks with passion about her job, her vocation.

Ashley divulges a deeply personal and deeply traumatic story from the SMACC stage.

Pre-hospital medicine, emergency medicine and critical care are difficult jobs. There is a human toll to be paid when working in these areas.

Ashley wonders if the stress, the emotion and the trauma torments all listeners. She believes it does not matter. Because it affects some. And it has affected Ashley.

Ashley implores you to be nice. She wants her colleagues to understand her, communicate with her, and respect her.

She explores the physiological maladaptive response when humans experience trauma and relates this to her experience.

Ashley goes on to share how she has, and is, dealing with the chronic stress she is experiencing. It involved adaptation and behaviour changes.

She educated herself on the effects of chronic stress and engaged strategies such as exercise, laughter, and human touch to counteract these. She engaged in communication with her family, so they were aware of what she needed.

Moreover, she started having more honest conversations with her colleagues.

Through her brave relaying of her own experience, Ashley wants to convey the importance of being aware of chronic stress, recognising it in oneself and others, and continue to strive to face it and deal with it together.

Dealing with Chronic Stress in Critical Care

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