Thrive and Revive: Psychological Strategies for Sustaining Wellbeing in Hospice and Palliative Care

Key Message: Hospice and palliative care professionals encounter emotional and ethical stressors shaped by proximity to suffering and loss further impacted by today’s sociopolitical landscape. This presentation offers experiential strategies grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, self-compassion, and trauma-informed care to address distress, and promote professional well-being across disciplines and career stages.

Abstract: Palliative care and hospice clinicians and researchers routinely encounter suffering, loss, ethically complex situations and systemic barriers increasing cumulative risk for compassion fatigue, burnout, moral distress and vicarious trauma (1-2). The impact can evolve across professional trajectories and involve career stage, role identity, sociopolitical stressors and exposure to health inequities (3). Without adequate support, individuals may experience emotional overwhelm, isolation or disengagement. This interactive presentation by psychologists will deepen participants’ awareness of psychological processes underlying professional distress. Presenters will introduce nuanced considerations for professional well-being applicable across roles – from seasoned leaders to novice learners- across interprofessional settings, and offer evidence-based strategies rooted in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (4), self-compassion (5), and trauma-informed care to cultivate sustained meaning and fulfillment in everyday work.

Through didactic instruction, case discussion, and experiential exercises grounded in evidence-based psychological frameworks, participants learn strategies to adapt interventions across the career continuum to mitigate workplace distress. Moving beyond discussion of resilience, presenters offer skills to respond to distress with flexibility, authenticity and intention. Attention is placed on strategies that foster psychological safety, connection, values alignment, fulfilment, and sustainable engagement, as well as barriers faced by individuals from historically marginalized backgrounds. A curated toolkit with apps, exercises, self-report questionnaires and resources to sustain professional well-being will be provided.

Supporting the well-being of diverse professionals who practice, research, educate, and support hospice and palliative care is essential to ethical practice, workforce retention, and professional vitality. This requires individual insight, as well as systemic, career-spanning, equitable solutions. This presentation equips professionals with evidence-based tools to identify and navigate professional distress and enhance connection and purpose in today’s challenging landscape. Leaders will gain strategies to foster team cohesion and reflective supervision and mentorship that supports well-being across professional roles and stages for a connected, sustainable and ethically grounded workforce.

References: 1. Cherny NI, Werman BZ, Kearney M. Burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral distress in palliative care. In: Cherny N, Fallon M, Kaasa S, Portenoy RK, Currow DC, eds. Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine. 5th ed. Oxford University Press; 2015:246–259. doi:10.1093/med/9780199656097.003.0416
2. Yongpraderm, S, Inpithuk, P, Wongprom, I, et al. Resilience-building in palliative care professionals: scoping review. BMJ Support Palliat. Care. 2025 Jan 28. doi:10.1136/spcare-2024-005144
3. Cordova MJ, Gimmler CE, Osterberg LG. Foster well‑being throughout the career trajectory: a developmental model of physician resilience training. Mayo Clin Proc. 2020;95(12):2719–2733. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2020.05.002
4. Fisher, S., Gillanders, D. and Ferreira, N. (2022), The experiences of palliative care professionals and their responses to work-related stress: a qualitative study. Br J Health Psychol, 27: 605-622. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12565
5. Galiana L, Sansó N, Muñoz-Martínez I, Vidal-Blanco G, Oliver A, Larkin PJ. Palliative care professionals' inner life: exploring the mediating role of self-compassion in the prediction of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout and wellbeing. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2022;63(1):112-123. doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2021.07.004