2148-EXPLOR-SCI--THEORIES-NURSING-83294-400 - 2148-NURS-5327-400-EXPLOR-SCI--THEORIES-NURSING--2014-Fall Theoretical Framework Paper Word Count: 2,335 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: Framework of Compassion Fatigue University of Texas at Arlington Exploration of Science and Theories for Nursing N5327 Rhonda Mintz-Binder, DNP RN CNE September 11, 2014 Compassion fatigue, which is also known, as secondary traumatic stress is a natural effect that occurs as a result of taking care of patients who are in pain, stressed, suffering, or traumatized. Compassion fatigue commonly affects nurses who show extreme empathy for patients and their relatives. Empathy is the act of putting oneself in another person’s situation …show more content…
Therefore, nurses should always seek intervention from mentors or professional counselors to prevent the development of compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress. Nurses also face many issues and challenges in the hospital setting. Nurses interact with multiple patients with different demands. Therefore, nurses should receive adequate support from superiors, family members, and colleagues to help keep their spirits up and to professionally complete their daily duties. Watson’s (2010) theory of human caring advocates relationship-based nursing. This relationship enables the nurse to empathize with the patient and the patient’s relatives. The nurse understands the patient and helps the patient and the relatives to deal with the current medical condition. Empathizing with the patient is one way of showing concern and improves the quality of care rendered by the nurse. According to Watson, for a nurse to empathize with the patient, there should be a good relationship between the nurse and the patient. According to Adams et al. (2006), compassion fatigue is connected with the patient’s therapeutic relationship with the health provider. As a healthcare provider empathizes with the patient, and enters into a therapeutic relationship, development of secondary traumatic stress tends to occur (Jenkins & Baird, 2002). The researchers also claim that there are other
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
Healthcare providers are at increased risk for compassion fatigue (CF), which has also been called secondary traumatic stress, second hand shock syndrome, secondary stress reaction, and vicarious trauma (ABA, 2011). Compassion fatigue begins to become an issue when caregivers give too much of themselves to others and neglect to provide for their own needs. Neglecting one’s personal needs can be harmful, leading to destructive behaviors and patterns, such as over indulgence and increased sick calls. Over time the provider has a decreased ability to show compassion. This paper will discuss and describe compassion fatigue, warning signs of compassion fatigue, and discuss recovery options for those suffering from compassion fatigue.
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
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.
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 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
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.
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
Running head: COMPASSION FATIGUE Physicians are not immune to CF either, in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical association, CF, defined as the emotional affects
In the field of medicine, there is large debate over something known as “compassion fatigue.” Some say it exists while others claim it doesn’t. I believe the reason people debate the idea of compassion fatigue being a reality is due to a misunderstanding in how compassion fatigue manifests.
Based on their findings, without intervention, that will equate to a turnover every 2 to 5.4 years. Education and intervention is essential in the prevention of symptoms that lead to compassion fatigue. If education and intervention is not part of an institutions standard process, there will continue to be a high turnover rate in nursing, including Critical Care RN’s. Discussed below are some recent research studies that were conducted to determine the extent of compassion fatigue and interventions used to prevent compassion
In module one, I found Eric Scalise’s lecture on “Managing the High Cost Care” very helpful, particularly when he discussed Compassion Fatigue. Compassion Fatigue, also referred to as secondary or vicarious trauma, is when is when a person has not experienced a traumatic event directly but are around individuals who have so frequently that they, themselves, are impacted emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and/or relationally. Secondary trauma can also happen to those who witness a traumatic event happening to others.
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