Compassion Fatigue In Nursing

Health providers suffer from an emotional problem called compassion fatigue. Often times compassion fatigue occurs do to the situations encountered by health care professionals and the pain they feel for the patients they care for. One of the essential components of health care is providing care is compassion

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

The incidence of compassion fatigue is increasing due to the heavy responsibilities placed on nurses and other providers, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Compassion can be a limited resource, our system is rooted in cognitive networks that tire and need refueling (Carey, 2011). Healthcare workers spend more time charting than

. This exploratory study used a cross sectional survey method (Hopper, Craig, Janvir, Wetsel, Reimels, Anderson, Greenvilee & Clemson, 2010, p. 422). Compassion satisfaction and fatigue subscales were measured using the Professional Quality of Life, using ProQOL R-IV instrument (Hopper, et al. 2010, p. 423). Despite study limitations which were small sample size, authors concluded that recognising the signs and symptoms, and identifying best practice interventions and raising awareness, will lead to the development of ongoing support programs for hospital nurses (Hopper, et al., 2010, p. 427).

The purpose of conducting a concept analysis is to divide the components of a concept into separate individual parts for evaluation and clarification. Analysis of the internal structure, defining aspects, characteristics and interrelationships to the other components can be achieved by conducting a concept analysis. The basic purpose is a process to discover the similarities and differences between concepts (Walker & Avant, 2005). The intent of the concept analysis on the subject of compassion fatigue is to evaluate compassion fatigue in nursing and to determine the current conceptual use in efforts to clarify the relevance to nurses. The aim is to identify how the concept is currently utilized and how it could potentially be utilized in the future.

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

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

health care services are limited, it is necessary that the available services are distributed fairly and in the most equitable way possible. In an effort to comply with the principle of justice, individuals who have unfair advantages over others must give up their privileges for the betterment of all (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2008, p.73). The discriminatory practice of denying health care coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions while others had insurance was in direct violation of this ethical principle. Although health care reform is often fueled by logical socio-economic reasons and the laws are rationalized within the context of the political sphere, compassion for others is at the base of these changes. Compassion is the ability

Nurses are one of the largest portion of health care workers in Canada (Kosier pg. 3). They played a big part in shaping the Canadian health care system and have made a recognized impact on the health of patients, patient’s families, and their communities (Kosier pg. 3). This project is a description of nursing as a Regulated Health Profession which means it is an occupation that requires extensive education and training to gain a body of knowledge and is regulated by the College of Nurses of Ontario (Kosier). Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse that has additional education and nursing experience (NPCanada.ca). In this paper I will provide information on the roles of the Nurse Practitioner,

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.

Patient care may be at risk if a nurse is experiencing compassion fatigue. Nurses can start to exhibit distancing or desensitizing behaviors in order to cope with their stressors; thus leading to a decreased satisfaction in patient care and an ineffective therapeutic relationship. The failure of the nurse to identify their stress, can

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

Compassion fatigue and burnout are consistently found to be negatively correlated with compassion satisfaction, reinforcing the notion that compassion satisfaction may function protectively (Yoder, 2010). Compassion satisfaction tends to be higher among intensive-care unit nurses than among emergency-department nurses (Yoder, 2010). Compassion fatigue is more prevalent among nurses who work 8-hour shifts than it is among those working 12-hour shifts (Yoder, 2010). All in all, the care-giving component of the nursing profession correlates positively with compassion fatigue (Burtson & Stichler,

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’s only noon and already, Linda has had to take a patient off of life support and prep another for a transplant. Because her patients need her, she cannot stop for a second to grieve. Linda is not unlike many other nurses, who don’t stop to eat lunch or go to the bathroom, much less grieve for the loss of a patient. All too often, nurses experience compassion fatigue, which presents itself as exhaustion and dysfunction in multiple aspects of their lives. A few nurses in the NSICU at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania joined forces to figure out a plan to prevent the accumulation of stress through one simple action: collaboration. Some of these nurses then attended a free Crisis Intervention course designed for nurses and other emergency responders, and with this information, they put together a step-by-step process to assist colleagues in coping with stress. By