Compassion Fatigue In Nursing Practice

My nursing philosophy is influenced by ten years as a critical care nurse while caring for patients and their families during vulnerable and difficult points in their lives. In critical care, patients vary on the wellness-illness spectrum. A young trauma victim with no health history, now has a life altering diagnosis of spinal cord injury. A chronically ill patient requires dialysis and limb amputation due to complications from diabetes and hypertension. I try to assess each patient’s situation independently to decide the best approach during my care. Nurses can easily become focused on the mechanics of the Intensive Care Unit and forget a human is connected to the machines and medications.

Nursing is a unique profession which is built upon theories that guide everyday nursing practice. According to Taylor, Lillis, & Lynn (2015), “Nursing theory differentiates nursing from other disciplines and activities in that it serves the purposes of describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling desired outcomes of nursing care practices” (p. 27). Many nurses may unknowingly apply a theory or a combination thereof, along with critical thinking to get the best outcome for a patient. Theories are used in practice today because they have been supported by research and help the profession uphold its boundaries. Most nursing theories consist of four concepts which are the patient, the environment, health, and nursing. Each patient is at the center of focus and they have the right to determine what care will be given to them using informed

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

When one thinks about nursing, caring, empathy, and compassion come to mind. There exists a link, an unbreakable union, for nurses that "compassion fatigue is the cost of caring for others in pain" (Boyle, 2015, p. 49). Compassion fatigue (CF) and its impact on nurses are predominating problems in various Emergency Departments (ED). Nurses perform a number of procedures throughout the day; however, the essential item that they deliver the utmost is themselves (Harris & Quinn-Griffin, 2015). Nurses provide care, succor, kindness, and tenderness to patients, families, other nurses; support to doctors and advanced practitioners, and convey directions to medical technicians, nursing assistants, and other staff every day. Eventually, the nurse can have their internal well of compassion come up empty, leaving them with CF. Simply stated, CF is the inability for nurses to nurture patients due to secondary traumatic stress disorder (Hinderer et al., 2014). This study explores what is compassion fatigue and ways to alleviate it and prevent it from taking away the love of nursing.

Overview - One of the key issues in modern healthcare is not only advocacy and patient care, but keeping patient's safe and free from harm. Globally, there are skyrocketing costs due to technology, wages, research and development, and an aging population. Much of the responsibility for patient safety, though, goes to the clear and direct responsibilities of the contemporary nurse. Modern nursing is a rewarding, but challenging, career choice. The modern nurse's role is not limited only to assist the doctor in procedures, however. Instead, the contemporary nursing professional takes on a partnership role with both the doctor and patient as advocate caregiver, teacher, researcher, counselor, and case manager. Under the paradigm of quality health care, modern nurses should interpret this as "quality patient care" which comprises three important factors sound theoretical knowledge of the latest medical procedures, information and innovations; superior communication skills that are multi-culturally based; and the ability to empathize appropriately with the patient and family to buttress the role of caregiver. The necessity for modern nurses is to be far more than ever more of a multitasking professional with superior communication and organization skills and even more focused on the holistic model of the patient and the manner in which they, the nurse, affects the outcome of the patient's care experience (Brown 2007). One cannot say enough, moreover, about the ability to

Nursing is recognized as an occupation that is under stress on both professional and personal levels. In recent years, increasing amount of nursing disputes cause the shortage of nurses currently threatens health care globally. One of the reasons of this shortage is that nurses experience high levels of stress and work load in acute care settings. The purpose of this assignment is to review ‘compassion fatigue’ in nursing and discuss the solutions of increasing resilience by nurses’ self-care.

Nurses are the largest group of regulated health professionals in Canada (Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, 2012). Yet, the ongoing struggle of a nursing shortage puts immense strain on the profession. According to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Institute, for the first time in 2 decades, more regulated nurses left their profession than entered it coupled with fewer individuals choosing the profession. As a result, this causes undue stress for nurses having to deal with and increase patient acuity and a decline in staffing ratios. This leads to an undermining of the quintessential, fundamental, underpinnings of nursing; sympathy, empathy, and the genuine intent to help others.

As caregivers, nurses in acute care settings are at higher risk for burnout and stress associated with their role than those in other occupations. Compassion fatigue (CF) and compassion satisfaction (CS) were examined in this study. The participants of this study were acute care nurses across multiple specialties in a hospital-based setting. (Kelly, Runge, & Spencer, 2015)

This hospital is affiliated with Compassionate Care Hospice, which allowed me to meet Nancy. Nancy pleasantly confirmed consent for me to interview her over a span of two days. Nancy has been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. The first memories Nancy could recall was when she was four years old. She is the eldest of three sisters and she grew up on a farm in New Jersey. She remembers learning how to milk a cow, her father taught her. She grew up with a mother and a father. Her mother was strict but still a loving woman. Her father was the head of the household, the only male, and “he ran the show”. Her sisters were both younger, one is two years younger and the other is four years younger. Nancy’s grandmother died of lung cancer when she was ten years old, her grandmother was of great importance to her. Church was a huge part of her life, she grew up as a Roman Catholic. She has had the measles three times and the chicken pox. She never had any dangerous accidents or was ever in a dangerous situation. Nancy enjoyed being a girl and loved playing with her

aware and have well-developed communication and interpersonal skills. NMC (2015) stated that as a nurse we have a duty to support the interest of our patients and clients. This includes helping patients gain access to health and social care, information, and support relevant to their needs . In Melanie’s case the needs were tangible as she was grieving and by speaking to my mentor a referral was done for her to speak to somebody who had more knowledge. One will conclude by saying that the care given to the patient was patient-centered as the professionals adopted an approach that was professional and committed to clear values, beliefs and aimed at empowering the patient as well as addressing their needs. The patient was engaged in all the

American Nurses Association defines nursing as “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and population”( Potter,P.,& Perry, A. 2005,1-5). Thus making nursing dynamic and ever changing. However, when nursing

As an individual, we adhere to our code of ethics, beliefs and moral values which impact the way we deliver care to the patients. This paper is a reflection of my nursing philosophy based on my experiences as a nurse on a post-lung transplant step-down unit. Nursing philosophy is an individual’s way of thinking, their belief system or worldview of nursing and their definition of nursing (Kearney-Nunnery, 2016). Thus, my nursing philosophy guides my actions on how I deliver care to the patients and function in an organization.

New nurses often feel as though they do not have enough time to complete daily tasks. New nurses struggle with completing tasks at the expense of delivering personal, individualized care. They tend to go through the motions, completing task after task without stopping to analyze what those tasks might have revealed. An example would be gathering vitals. The new nurse methodically takes all of her vitals and records them in the computer. However, in this task centered approach, she failed to analyze the vitals and missed a red flag warning sign for one of her patients (Chan et al., 2013). With a strong emphasis on task completion, many new nurses feel a disconnect with their patient. They are not getting to truly know their patients or what their patient’s needs really are. Spending time communicating with patients and families was found to help

According to Johnstone (2008) “the examination of all kinds of ethics and bioethical issues from the perspective of nursing theory and practice, which, in turn, rest on the agreed case conception of nursing namely: person, culture, care, health, healing, environment and nursing itself”. Nurses’ professional relationship to patient care and within the health care team brings about ethical issues unique to the nursing profession. To practice nursing

One responsibility of performing nursing care is caring for patients who are terminally ill, nervous, depressed, in pain, worried, and in very poor health. It is easy for a nurse to indulge herself or himself in patient problems as if they are their own. When maintaining a close, personal relationship with the patients the nurse cares for every day, the nurses also feel the sting of pain, death, and illness of their patients. Dealing with situations such as these for long periods of time in the work environment, nurses are very susceptible to developing compassion fatigue. The term compassion fatigue has been used since the 1990’s to define situations where nurses experience feelings of helplessness and displeasure or cut off their own feelings in response to the stress they feel seeing their patients go through times of devastating illnesses or trauma (Kolthoff & Hickman, 2016). Compassion fatigue is also referred to as secondary traumatic stress disorder and can be just as serious as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It can affect nurses in providing care, which is why it is important for everyone to be aware of the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue, and know what can be done to prevent or treat this type of traumatization.