Alert To Compassion Fatigue: A Case Study

The concept of this EBP change project is compassion fatigue as it relates to nurses working in an emergency department (ED) dealing with secondary trauma causing symptoms of compassion fatigue (CF). Compassion is defined as the empathetic awareness of another’s distress, united with a desire to alleviate it (Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.). Fatigue is the physical or mental depletion that can be the result of strain, overwork, or disease (The Free Medical Dictionary,

I believe anyone involved in the medical field needs the information about compassion fatigue due to its importance. It affects everyone involved in the health care field including all staff, patients, and even the organization itself. I believe not only the clinical staff but also the administrative staff should have yearly mandatory in-services on the subject of compassion fatigue. I also believe it is important for the board members to have all of the information on compassion fatigue, because organizational symptoms include high absenteeism, lack of vision for future of the company, negativism towards management, lack of flexibility among staff members, inability of staff to respect deadlines, inability of staff to complete assignments,

When choosing to pursue a career in the health care field, most enter the workplace with the desire to help and provide care for patients who are critically ill (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Far too often, these health professionals who were once sympathetic and caring become victims of compassion fatigue (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). As a working health professional it is ones duty to compassionately care for the sick, wounded and traumatized patients, which involves being exposed daily to the patient’s pain, suffering and trauma (Coetzee & Klopper, 2010). Experiencing this type of trauma first hand is an un-recognized side effect of being a health care professional (Briscoe, 2014). It is easy to get wrapped up in patients, their

physical and mental exhaustion that occurs as a gradual result of working in hostile and

summary, a fair amount of research has been conducted on burnout and compassion fatigue. it is important to understand the individual factors that lead to the development of burnout and compassion fatigue. Another purpose is to understand whether or not the experience of STS is limited only to those who have direct contact with individuals who are experiencing trauma symptoms. Additionally, most literature that discusses coping with compassion fatigue focuses on self-care techniques rather than on an effective style of cognitive appraisal. Common assumptions are that effective coping styles for healthcare workers will generalize to the mental health field. The present study also aims to identify a coping profile indicating whether or not a

I have never submitted a summer projects application and would love to sit down and "pick your brain." I am thinking about submit a summer project on building a curriculum for GCC occupational programs on compassion and fatigue. The goal is to prepare students for the demands of highly stressful careers offered at GCC (e.g., Behavioral Health Sciences, Nursing, Emergency Medical Technician, Law Enforcement Operations, Developmental Disabilities Specialist, and Fire Science). The compassion and fatigue curriculum would include teaching students how to building resiliency against secondary & post-traumatic stress and learn the necessary skills to prevent burnout.

Compassion fatigue is a huge reality and according to Potter et al. (2013), long-term effects of compassion fatigue have negative impact on the health, well-being and performance of nurses involved. Jean Watson’s theory of caring said, true healing cannot be realized without caring therefore, compassion fatigue is a problem that does not only affect nurses, but goes a notch higher by also affecting the quality of care offered by compassion fatigue victims. Boyle (2011) observed that there is need for nurses to be compassionate and caring especially when providing care to patients, families or relatives. Slatten et al. (2011) noted that compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard among nurses involved (that is, professionals involved in helping others). Compassion fatigue is therefore, a significant problem affecting professional practice in nursing because Rosa (2014) stated that, being a successful caregiver requires a nurse to be in a position to find the meaning in what they do, remain committed and immersed in order to gain a sense of purpose. However, compassion fatigue stands as a barrier to realization of sense of purpose among

Compassion fatigue is something I had never thought of before reading obstacle 5 in The Christianity 9 to 5 Bible Study. Although I have never felt the feelings described with this problem at my current job, I can relate with the symptoms at one of my old summer jobs. I spent two summers working for a grain elevator, where I did everything that was asked of me. Being both a summer job, and one that revolved around farming, I knew that the hours were going to vary from week to week. During the heart of the season, there were weeks where, as a summer employee, I was working nearly 80 hours. Spending that much time with the same group of co-worked can become taxing. Especially when the co-workers often were lazy. The company employed 8 people,

“Compassion fatigue” is the more recent term used to describe secondary stress reactions among those who are empathically engaged with others who are traumatized or suffering. It is very closely related to the idea of vicarious trauma (Figley, 2002b; Stamm, 2009) and has been suggested as a substitute term for “secondary traumatic stress disorder” because it is thought to be less stigmatizing to the professional (Figley,

Compassion fatigue, sometimes called secondary trauma, is when an individual is around a person’s/people’s trauma so that that they themselves begins to be impacted emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and/or relationally. A person can also experience a form of compassion fatigue, known as vicarious trauma, when a traumatic event doesn’t happen to them directly but they do witness the event. Individuals like caregivers, doctors, counselors, social workers, chaplains, etc. are very susceptible to compassion fatigue because in their line of work caring for individuals who have been traumatized is come place.

Health caregivers are the group of people mostly at risk of developing compassion fatigue. Most of the times, compassion fatigue may be as a result of the situations the care providers encountered and the pain they feel for their patients. One of the vital element of healthcare is providing a compassionate care. Compassion is defined as being aware of other people suffering, and desire to help to them reduce the suffering (Ruysschaert, 2009). Compassion fatigue is seen as a form of burnout that affect the health care provider which manifest itself as physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion (Lynch & Lobo, 2012). The four major factors that can lead to compassion fatigue are, giving others too much caring and not enough care to self, unresolved past trauma, inability to control stress at work, and lack of satisfaction in the work (Ruysschaert, 2009). Compassion fatigue occurs when the caregivers are milked of their sense of wellbeing, comfort, their purpose in life, strength and all the good qualities they have. It is important for those that caring for others to also pay attention to their own needs. Taking care of your own needs means that you will be healthy and therefore be more able to care for others. The caregiver needs to be able to recognize and discuss compassion in order to avoid it.

Human service workers are likely to intervene with people with serve psychological and physical traumatic problems connected with sexual and physical assault, murder, Alzheimer’s disease, and AIDS (James and Gilliland, 2013). As a result of this involvement, the professional may develop secondary traumatic stress disorder or vicarious traumatization and compassion fatigue. However, these terms are used interchangeably to describe what is going on when the crisis worker-client relationship becomes pathological. Therefore, it is imperative for human service professionals to be made aware of the signs and symptoms, not only for the benefit of their clients but for themselves and their colleagues as well. One method that professionals can use to

The phrase compassion fatigue was initially identified by C. Joinson in 1992 while doing research on burnout in emergency room nurses. Joinson described situations where nurses “had either turned off their own feelings or experienced helplessness and anger in response to the stress they [felt] watching patients go through devastating illnesses or trauma” (Yoder, 2010, p. 191). Joinson’s work identified behaviors in emergency room nurses that became identified as compassion fatigue. Symptoms of compassion fatigue include “chronic fatigue, irritability, dread going to work, aggravation of physical ailments and a lack of joy in

if they had been successful in coping with the work stress or if they felt that the

Compassion fatigue is widely known in the health care profession. Nurses working overtime and long working days to provide care for the patient and the patient’s families are a continuous stress on a nurse’s emotional and physical well-being especially if the nurse is providing the patient with end of life care as this contributes to both physical and mental work. Vital