Taking care of care providers: a wellness program for pediatric nurses.

The cumulative effect of professional stress and compassion fatigue within the health care profession has been receiving increasing attention. The impact can be especially worrisome for nurses who work with chronic illness populations, such as oncology. While interventions targeted at reducing nurses stress and promoting wellness are cited as necessary, they are often lacking in busy medical environments. In this article, the authors describe a newly developed 10-session wellness program that was offered on 2 occasions to both inpatient and outpatient nursing staff. The nursing staff chose the content areas, and each session used a combined approach of hands on and didactic learning. A description of the activity offered during each session along with the core competency and objectives measured are provided. Overall, staff found the wellness series very helpful to themselves and to their ability to positively change their job performance.