Compassion Fatigue : Symptoms And Pain

Compassion fatigue is the emotional residue from the exposure of hearing trauma stories over and over until your heart and head is full until the caller/client’s trauma becomes your experience too. You cannot hear story after story and remain unaffected. As your callers/clients experience a daily repetition of trauma, so will you .Being a witness to pain, loss, fear, terror or injustice that the caller/client is living through and has to endure will eventually effect all of us.

One of the major emotional disorders that occurs in health care providers who experience compassion fatigue is depression. Depression will lead to the individual experiencing increasing feelings of sadness and helplessness. Individuals may experience a loss of interest in previous hobbies, fear, guilt, and anxiety. The person may be describe as an emotional roller coaster who is sad, angry, and overly sensitive from one minute to the next. Often times the person is emotionally numb and depleted.

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

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

Within literature, Compassion has been described in many ways though very few descriptions have agreed on how it is best identified (Volpintesta 2011). Crowther et al (2013) describe compassion as a deep emotion that is felt by the individual practitioner allowing them to understand what the patient may be experiencing. Nussbaum (2003) argues that compassion goes beyond just understanding and identifying that emotion, it requires the practitioner to produce a response to the feeling or emotion in order to improve the situation. Dewar (2011) points out that compassion is not only about the recognition of the patients suffering but includes small

The warning signs for compassion fatigue may include; decreased interest or concern, heightened arousal, startling easily, isolating, depression, anger, manifestation of physical illnesses, increased irritability, substance and alcohol abuse, overeating, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbances, and decreased ability to balance empathy and objectivity (Pfifferling & Gilley, 2000). Those suffering from compassion fatigue have described the feeling of being out of control, and the more work or care the provider does for others, the less compassionate they feel until they feel hopeless, helpless, as though they have nothing else to give. Some providers may be more easily susceptible to compassion fatigue after experiencing personal trauma. While the effects of compassion fatigue can cause confusion, anxiety and heartache, one important key to recovery is to identify the symptoms, so the healthcare worker can work towards self-restoration and recovery.

Longitudinal data was collected to determine the efficacy of resilience program at three and six month intervals (Potter et al., 2013). The longitudinal data in the study reported statistically significant results of decreased overall compassion fatigue through implementation of a compassion fatigue intervention program (Potter et al., 2013). A pilot study of a compassion fatigue resiliency program with thirteen oncology nurses showed promising results. “The program interventions were

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

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

Potter, P., Deshields, T., Berger, J.A., Clarke, M., Olsen, S., & Chen, L. (2013). Evaluation of a compassion fatigue resiliency program for oncology nurses. Oncology Nursing Forum 40(2), 180-187.

According to Coetzee and Hester (2010) compassion fatigue was adopted as a synonym for secondary traumatic stress disorder. The aim of their 2010 concept analysis of the topic was to further define compassion fatigue as it applies to the nursing practice. They describe the process of compassion fatigue from just simply discomfort to compassion stress and finally fatigue. (p.1) Their analysis describes how damaging compassion fatigue can be on a nurse’s ability to provide compassionate care. The information is vital to the field of nursing and the outcomes of our patients. Specifically, it plays an important role in my personal practice. It’s a nurse responsibility to provide compassion care for the ill. In the process nurses are exposed daily to their patient’s pain trauma, and their struggles. This and other factors such as unsafe work conditions can take a toll on nurses and their functionality.

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 represents an “acknowledgement of another’s suffering and is accompanied by the expression of a desire to ease or end that suffering.” (Van der Cingal, 2009, p. 124) This is a fundamental characteristic usually found in health care workers and nurses especially. In one twelve hour shift, a nurse’s job can change from taking vitals and administering medications to performing life saving measures

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