This book compares the histories of psychiatric and voluntary hospital nurses’ health from the rise of the professional nurse in 1880 to the advent of the National Health Service in 1948. In the process it reveals the ways national ideas about the organisation of nursing impacted on the lives of ordinary nurses. It explains why the management of nurses’ health changed over time and between places, and sets these changes within a wider context of social, political and economic history. Today, high rates of sickness absence in the nursing profession attract increasing criticism. Nurses took more days off sick in 2011 than private sector employees and most other groups of public sector workers. This book argues that the roots of today’s problems are embedded in the ways nurses were managed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It offers insights not only into the history of women’s work but also the history of disease and the ways changing scientific knowledge shaped the management of nurses’ health.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

Care giving professionals are notoriously poor at looking after themselves; they give part of themselves everyday, see people at their lowest and most vulnerable. As well as being exposed to the physical trauma, they deal with acute psychological distress on a daily basis; their own and of others. Learning to still follow your dreams and have personal goals, many just put their life on a back burner and let others take over. This is a dangerous trait, as it leads to unhappiness, stress, discontentment and burnout. Many great people are leaving all areas of caring, because they feel they are running on empty. Giving excuses and blame for this to others, will not change anything. Take charge of your life, your choices and your outcomes. This to a carer will sound selfish, but in reality; what is going to happen to your patients when you are absent minded, make mistakes, get upset or angry, when you burnout and are no longer able to care for yourself, or them. Looking after yourself is not a luxury - it is a necessity, being resilient, knowing your boundaries and learning to say no, are fundamental for your wellbeing and for your patients. Learn how to off load self sabotaging thoughts, beliefs and habits. Choose what internal and external baggage you carry with you. Dump outdated thoughts, replace them with a more positive, protective and proactive outlook, to achieve better outcomes. Caring for the wellbeing of others is a fundamental part of you, but learning to care about yourself seems to take a lot of work. Seeing your needs, wants and desires as equal to everyone else, is a must. By keep giving small pieces of yourself to everyone else, when do you have time, energy or inclination to give to yourself? Compassion Fatigue is not acknowledge in the Northern Hemisphere, but the feeling of running on empty is undoubtedly known to all professions, volunteers and home carers. It is a silent killer, a demon that will take you emotionally, psychologically and physically to exhaustion. There are ways for you to feel better, to learn to love yourself and to live the life you desire and deserve, as well as giving to others. You have to take control and get rid of outdated thoughts, beliefs and habits. To be not just the best professional you can be, but the best person for you and for others.

Are you caring for a loved one, often feeling stressed with little time to yourself? Would you like to regain balance and enjoy life? Most carers fall either mentally or physically unwell from the pressures of caring. So many issues can arise. Sara cared for her husband for 13 years after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. After falling ill from the stress of caring, she then discovered new ways not only to regain her health, but to start enjoying life again. This book can help anyone caring for a loved one. It gives practical know-how, guiding you to make the right choices to safeguard your own health and wellbeing whilst caring. There are so many ways that you can make positive changes to your daily life – the smallest of tweaks can make the biggest of differences, radically transforming your life and the life of the person you care for. In sharing her own stories and the case studies of other carers, Sara helps you discover the crucial steps to wellbeing whilst caring, so that you can enjoy your life – guilt free. This book is an inspiring and empathetic guide to staying healthy and happy whilst caring. We all deserve to enjoy our lives – and so do you.

"Scouring the history of Native American boarding schools, nineteenth-century reformatories, and programs to Americanize immigrants, Glenn brilliantly reveals the role of coercion in caregiving. An important read for us all."---Arlie Hochschild, author of The Time Bind --

The stories of fathers caring for non-verbal children and how these experiences alter their understandings of care, masculinity, and living a full life. Vulnerable narratives of fatherhood are few and far between; rarer still is an ethnography that delves into the practical and emotional realities of intensive caregiving. Grounded in the intimate everyday lives of men caring for children with major physical and intellectual disabilities, Worlds of Care undertakes an exploration of how men shape their identities in the context of caregiving. Anthropologist Aaron J. Jackson fuses ethnographic research and creative nonfiction to offer an evocative account of what is required for men to create habitable worlds and find some kind of “normal” when their circumstances are anything but. Combining stories from his fieldwork in North America with reflections on his own experience caring for his severely disabled son, Jackson argues that care has the potential to transform our understanding of who we are and how we relate to others.

This volume is for all those involved in caring for people - family carers, parents, health and social workers, educators and others.

Young adult carers in the North-West UK - Mental health, wellbeing and isolation.

With a foreword by Judy Woodruff, The Unexpected Journey of Caring is a practical guide to finding personal meaning in the 21st century care experience. Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out—not one that hunts us down. Becoming a caregiver is one transformation that comes at us, requiring us to rethink everything we once knew. Everything changes—responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations, and relationships. Caregiving is not just a role reserved for “saints”—eventually, everyone is drafted into the caregiver role. It’s not a role people medically train for; it’s a new type of relationship initiated by a loved one’s need for care. And it’s a role that cannot be quarantined to home because it infuses all aspects of our lives. Caregivers today find themselves in need of a crash course in new and unfamiliar skills. They must not only care for a loved one, but also access hidden community resources, collaborate with medical professionals, craft new narratives consistent with the changing nature of their care role, coordinate care with family, seek information and peer support using a variety of digital platforms, and negotiate social support—all while attempting to manage conflicts between work, life, and relationship roles. The moments that mark us in the transition from loved one to caregiver matter because if we don’t make sense of how we are being transformed, we risk undervaluing our care experiences, denying our evolving beliefs, becoming trapped by other’s misunderstandings, and feeling underappreciated, burned out, and overwhelmed. Informed by original caregiver research and proven advocacy strategies, this book speaks to caregiving as it unfolds, in all of its confusion, chaos, and messiness. Readers won’t find well-intentioned clichés or care stereotypes in this book. There are no promises to help caregivers return to a life they knew before caregiving. No, this book greets caregivers where they are in their journey—new or chronic—not where others expect (or want) them to be.