Forward-Facing® Professional Resilience

Prevention and Resolution of Burnout, Toxic Stress and Compassion Fatigue

by J. Eric Gentry, Ph.D. & Jeffrey Jim Dietz, M.D.

 

Book Details

A Mission To Help Others Heal

A mission to help others heal and regain productive lives is likely what led you to pursue a career in professional caregiving. But what happens when all the accumulated suffering and trauma that you have witnessed and the pain that you have experienced starts to cause problems in your own personal and professional life? Insidious and often steeped in shame, compassion fatigue burnout and traumatic stress are very real issues that members of the caregiving community are not only at risk for but will inevitably confront at some point in their careers. The key is not to fight against or run away from these consequences of caregiving, but to recognize their normalization, origination, and the applicable steps available to heal your existing stress and build resilience for the future. In Forward-Facing® Professional Resilience: Prevention and Resolution of Burnout, Toxic Stress and Compassion Fatigue, trauma and compassion fatigue expert Dr. J. Eric Gentry and medical director and practitioner of emergency medicine Dr. Jeffrey “Jim” Dietz combine over seventy years’ worth of experience treating patients and caregivers to present a two-part text that first examines the cause of compassion fatigue, followed by a proven, simple five-step solution for healing and a renewed sense of mission. Drawing from their Professional Resilience workshop that has been attended by over 100,000 international participants, Drs. Gentry and Dietz address these issues with their readers in ways that are candid, heartfelt, insightful, and most of all—filled with hope.

This is not only a book about avoiding compassion fatigue and burnout, it’s about rediscovering the joy of helping others. – Charles R. Figley, PhD, Kurzweg Chair in Disaster Mental Health, Tulane University, New Orleans

 

About the Author

J. Eric Gentry, Ph.D. & Jeffrey Jim Dietz, M.D.

This book is long overdue. I trained at a time when ‘brute force’ was considered the only way to get through. Anything less was a sign of weakness. The world of medicine has evolved and we are learning that it takes an entire ‘new’ skill set to survive. The Electronic Health Record, multiple clinical and operational metrics, and patient experience scores create additional demands on professional caretakers and at times, seem to inhibit our ability to experience joy in the path we have chosen. It took a significant life event for me (a mass shooting at a local college where my daughter was, and I was on shift) to realize that the way I had always coped was no longer effective and that my life had become unmanageable. The tools and skills I learned in sessions I participated in are now part of my daily life and practice. The balance of science and paradigm shift have been career, and even lifesaving. This book makes access to this material available to many more health care providers. – Wade Fox, DO FACEP FAAEM I have had the honor of serving thirty-eight years in civilian and military medicine. I have personally witnessed the toll from the challenging work that we do in myself, friends, colleagues and Airmen I have had the honor of leading, performing the aeromedical evacuation mission in combat. The work that caregivers do is hard, often seeing in one day what most of humanity does not see in a lifetime. Our workplace culture tells us not to ask for help, not to show the chink in our armor, but to suffer through. However, I know from personal experience working with Dr. Eric Gentry, that we do not need to suffer. There are immediate, evidence-based, scientifically grounded techniques, that if I choose to implement them, I can renew and re-energize in the moment, no matter how stressful. I can live personally and professionally with resilience, vitality and experience an exceptional life. In this book, Eric and Jim share their own personal struggles and the decades of experience and research to allow you to do the same. – Kathleen Flarity, DNP, PhD, CEN, CFRN, FAEN, Associate Clinical Professor, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Colonel, US Air Force

Also by J. Eric Gentry, Ph.D. & Jeffrey Jim Dietz, M.D.

Forward-Facing® Freedom
Forward-Facing® for Educators
Forward-Facing® Trauma Therapy - Second Edition
LIBERTAD con FORWARD-FACING®