Caregiver Burnout: A Case Study

Nursing “burnout” is becoming a common issue in the nursing community. Psychologist Herbert J. Freudenberg “described

Researchers have identified several types of caregiver burden with somewhat inconsistent results (Knight et al., 2000). The inconsistencies are due to differences in the factor analysis procedures and the labels used to describe the latent factors. In addition, the last item of the ZBI, a summative question, was often not included in the analyses because of its large correlations with many items (Knight et al.; Lai, 2007). Four studies, three of which used the 12-item ZBI (Bedard et al., 2001; O’Rourke et al., 2003; Hebert et al., 2000) and one of which used the full version (Whitlatch et al., 1991), found two latent factors: personal strain and role strain. Personal strain has been defined as “how personally stressful the experience is” and role strain has been defined as “stress due

The day comes and you think you cannot hear one more story of trauma. This is not a sign of burnout but of compassion fatigue. It’s a signal to you that it is time to step back and do self-care. Burnout and compassion fatigue are often confused as the same thing. The difference between them is that burnout builds up gradually over time and resolves itself when the volunteer or practitioner takes a break or goes to other work, even in the same field.

Throughout this interview, the presenting issues appear to be ambivalent relationships, and caretaker strain {as determined by a high score on the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire–Short Form (CGSQ-SF)}. Gilbert appears to have role confusion with emerging leadership conflicts and

Burnout is defined as an internal psychological experience that involves feelings, attitudes, motives and expectations. Burnout means the energy of an individual has been consumed by helping others. Energy crisis occurs when the psychic demand exceeds the supply. Burnout is often experienced with a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion caused by a long-term involvement within an emotionally demanding situation. Burnout is often accompanied by physical depletion, feelings of helplessness, disillusionment, negative self-concept and negative attitudes toward employment, people and life in itself. Burnout represents a breaking point where it’s hard for an individual to cope with the environment surrounding them. Compassion fatigue is often caused by a work related stress and it is also an increase of loss in compassion over a period of time. Compassion fatigue can share similar

According to Kim, Chang, Rose, & Kim (2011), care-giver burden has been defined as a multidimensional response to the negative appraisal and perceived stress resulting from the taking care of an ill individual (p. 846). More easily stated a care-giver is a person who assists another individual with one or more of their daily activities of living. A person who finds it necessary to care for a loved one suffering from dementia often finds the task daunting if not polarizing. The role of caregiver often times has a negative effect on the caregiver. These can include feelings of depression, isolation, fear and anger as well as the feelings of constant responsibility and social isolation (Kim et al., 2011).

This paper will provide information on how compassion fatigue has been underplayed in pass years and current clinical

Burnout stress can be caused with lack of sleep and being overworked and overwhelmed. They may become unmotivated to do their job and allow their performance to slip (Craig 81). Other factors of burnout include lifestyles and personality. Having a positive attitude can relieve such stress and acting to eliminate it by speaking with someone can prove very helpful. Compassion fatigue is described as a self-protection method by mentally distancing oneself.

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.

3 which they keep seeing in their mind, and can still affect them through avoidant behavior, and intrusive thoughts, which goes by the name of Compassion Fatigue (2012). Laura Browning’s article states “burnout progresses across three phases: high expectations of control, reactance, and helplessness” (pgs. 248-254, 2007). To find out if a nurse has burnout the Maslach Burnout Inventory is used; this has 22 questions that assess healthcare professionals for burnout. Questions on the questionnaire include how the person feels when they go to work, if they can deal with their patients and if they find satisfaction in their work (Ozcakar, 2012). According to Dr. Paul Griner, exhaustion from long hours of working, problems at work and personal problems at home can influence the person to be more susceptible to nursing

Caregiving is a responsibility best managed with plenty of help. Being a caregiver is very hard and tough work. It is very important that caregivers are taking care of just like their patients. Many caregivers give everything they have and do not rest when they really should take time to breathe and have time for themselves. That is why there are many organizations for caregivers and their patients. These organizations are made for the caregivers to teach them to be the best that they can be at their job and also making sure that their mental state is doing well.

Similar to physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion results from depletion of emotional resources and failure to restore one’s own emotional equilibrium. (Moore, 2009, p. 1) In today’s busy society the demands of life, job and family can be excessive and overwhelming. Combine these demands with the additional stressors of caring for another person or persons, increased demands of productivity with decreased personnel and the unrealistic expectations of one’s self or others and place all of this burden on one person, this would adequately describe the 21st century nurse. Nurses are continually engaged in emotional relationships with patients and their families which call upon the nurse to be in a constant supporting role. One reaches emotional exhaustion when this burden becomes too heavy to carry

KR is a single 55 year old African American man providing primary care for his mother who’s health is abruptly declining due to dementia. Recently, KR has expressed the care of his mother requires excessive responsibility and the care has become burdensome. KR is susceptible to burnout if he is not able to cope with the caregiving requirements As a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), referrals for hospital and community based services, such as hospice or in-home care that are available to support KB and the care his mother should be prepared. Family caregivers frequently seek approval and support from health care professionals as they make decisions regarding the needs of their family member. It is imperative that family caregivers are aware of

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

It is evident that the relationship between work stress and mental health has been established by numerous research studies. As discussed in Koesky (1993), the fact that all jobs involve some degree of stress makes it all the more alarming as to the level of stress experienced by individuals working in the human services. That is, given that these individuals are heavily involved in the lives of others, they often develop mental health symptoms that are characteristic of work-related stressors. In fact, “This involvement, which requires caring commitment and empathic responding, places workers at risk for a special type of strain commonly referred to as 'burnout'” (Koesky, 1993, p. 319).