Stressors in the AIDS Hospice Environment
Abstract
Stressors in the AIDS Hospice Environment ⢠⢠⢠By Steffanie Strathdee, M.Sc, John Flannery, M.Sc.N., and Doug Graydon, M.Div. Introduction recent years, hospices have provided palliative care to increasing numbers of individuals in the terminal stages of AIDS. At Case House Hospice in contagion, stigma, grief, and burnout.23 AIDS caregivers may be particularly susceptible to burnout, which is generally defined as a syndrome characterized by result of chronic occupational stress.4 To date, however, there is a paucity of information which focuses on Stressors in AIDS hospice staff. Staff working in a traditional hospice environment may experience Stressors that are entirely different from Stressors experienced by staff of an AIDS hospice. For example, PWAs tend to be young, homosexual, and unaccustomed to illness prior to their HIV infection. The unpredictable nature of HIV disease with periods of acute illness followed by remission is perhaps less familiar to traditional hospice staff. Furthermore, AIDS hospice staff are often forced to witness the stigma and emotional upheaval residents may experience in their interactions with family and friends. Since AIDS hospice staff have chosen to work with those who are dying, the Stressors they experience may also be somewhat different from those