We heal the healers in a one stop shop.

We are medical professionals teaching wisdom arts as stress coping skills to healthcare workers and healthcare students. We also consult medical administrations on how their clinical institutions can be more like healing Shangri-las for the workers and the patients. 

​2020, America watched healthcare workers collapse mentally and physically, but the infrastructure of the typical healthcare workers’ mental state was already crumbling before the 2020 Covid Pandemic… Did you know that Hospitals were an unbearably stressful place to work BEFORE Covid 19?
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​In 2009, an average of 40% of nurses nationwide had diagnosable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from their job (Mealer et al.). Only 10% of the general population has PTSD and just 20% of combat veterans have PTSD (King et al., 2017).

From 2003-2016, suicide was the largest source of fatal injuries (52%) in healthcare workers (Braun et al., 2021).

In 2014, 76% of all hospital nurses personally experienced stress producing mental and/or physical VIOLENCE on the job while 88% of emergency nurses experienced it. Abuses were believed to be under reported due to employees making excuses for patient behavior (Speroni et al.).

In 2017, According to the Journal of Clinical Nursing, approximately 20% of all nurses struggle with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. 10% of physicians will become drug or alcohol abusers. These are the reported addicts. There are many more in hiding. The general public has a 6% drug and alcohol addiction rate, 2017.

In 2018, Healthcare workers accounted for 73% of ALL nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses due to VIOLENCE (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Workplace violence creates stress and affects job performance, job productivity, job morale, job retention, and job satisfaction and ultimately patient care (King et al., 2017).

Pandemics are shining a spotlight on an existing problem.

During 2020’s Covid pandemic…

• 57% of healthcare workers experienced acute stress
• 48% depression
• 33% anxiety
• Healthcare workers DID NOT show a baseline knowledge of habits, practices, and rituals for mentally processing stress nor for possessing stress coping skills.
• Healthcare workers succumbed to the epic pressures of Covid 19 stressors because they were not mentally equipped (Shechter et al., 2020).

Solutions
The Processing and Coping Skills of Healthcare Workers
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There is a great deal of research on which specific coping skills help alleviate stress for healthcare workers. On the psychological front, self-care and self-awareness are the largest best-practice coping predictors for improving healthcare workers’ quality of life, while traditional healthcare training and physical-only self-care did not have a positive effect on healthcare workers’ coping skills (Balboni et al., 2015; Best et al., 2016; Cole, 2009; Kearney et al., 2001; Sansó et al., 2015). On the social front, The World Health Organization Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice states that interprofessional social education improves healthcare worker collaboration and patient health outcomes (Bode et al., 2016).  

The research supports us, this is exactly the coursework we provide at Firm Water Road: 

psychological and social education for healthcare workers and students.

Truth: Health systems can only function at the level of their workers’ mental and physical health.

​​Society is demanding change on every front. 
​Healthcare is at ground zero.

We change healthcare

Find out more about our work on our website
FirmWaterRoad.com