Compassion fatigue is a far reaching concept typically associated with the negative effects that a care provider may experience following intense and often stressful patient care events. Recognition of and a clear understanding of the concept is vital for communities, organizations and individuals in order to provide a fortified approach to intervention, treatment and the provisions of evidence based practices. Gaining recognition for the past two decades, researchers have worked to further develop the concept of Compassion Fatigue (CF) by altering and adding to the definition making it more applicable it to various areas of their study including Medicine, Psychology, Sociology and Education, among others. Though well intended, there were…
not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” What happens when the compassion that drives you to make a difference puts you in distress? Compassion Fatigue (CF) is an issue many nurses struggle to cope with daily; especially those who specialize in traumatic recovery such as Oncology nurses. Compassion Fatigue is defined as “A lack of sympathy for suffering, as a result of continuous exposure to…
Compassion Fatigue and Verghese Compassion fatigue is a growing result of working in the medical profession. The definition of compassion fatigue is the cumulative physical, emotional and psychological effect of exposure to traumatic stories or events when working in a helping capacity, combined with the strain and stress of everyday life (American Bar Association). Health physicians, especially those working with terminally ill patients, often become compassionately fatigued from the deaths…
Compassion Fatigue has been of increasing interest for healthcare institutions for many years (Stamm, 2002). The interest on this topic has grown over the past decade due to the correlation that has been identified and supported between burnout and increased turnover among healthcare workers (Jenkins & Baird, S., 2002). A 2009 study identified that nurses with high levels of Compassion Fatigue also have high levels of Burnout (Hooper, Craig, Janvrin, Wetsel & Reimels, 2009). Additionally,…
There are many aspects that could cause compassion fatigue with the Riverez family. When you are a practitioner you walk a fine line with finding yourself caring too much. The Riverez family is suffering from many different issues at once. As a professional you want to help the family to build up their lives. When issues arise, a family looks to the professional for guidance and when you are unable to complete the task it does cause more stress on the professional. First, it is very…
hopelessness, lack of pleasure, anxiety, stress, sleeplessness and a negative attitude towards life (Stamm, 2010). This decreases self-efficacy and confidence leading to deterioration in performance and work output (McHolm, 2006). Multiple factors were involved in the pathophysiology of compassion fatigue. These may pertain to the personality of the sufferer or to external world. Both the factors have been claimed to be equally important. Personal factors are levels of sympathy and compassion,…
struggle with exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and burnout. This study was conducted to determine if CFS workers in Region 2 suffer from compassion fatigue and what can be done to help alleviate some risk factors attributed to compassion fatigue. The Problem Compassion fatigue has been topic of increased consideration within CFS for a number of years. Working in this field requires working with traumatized clients in high stress environments. Additionally, exposure to secondary trauma can lead…
Staying aware of how much effort we place on thinking of others and their wellbeing is tough because there are so many other things we must keep track of everyday of our lives. Self-analysis and finding time to nurture one’s own contentment can easily be placed on the back burner. Compassion fatigue: “has been defined as a combination of physical, emotional, and spiritual depletion associated with caring for patients in significant emotional pain and physical distress (Anewalt, 2009; Figley,…
individual used. Interviews were audiotaped in 1 hour duration. The interviews were categorized and the information was then sorted into data categories through Hyper RESEARCH. Afterword, a Quantitative study was completed from the codes of the previous study with 104 therapists (21 male 83 female). A questionnaire was given from different codes such as social support, personal trauma history, affective coping style, self-care strategies, burnout, emotional self-awareness, work environment…
Trauma Being in the healthcare health can take a toll on a counselor/therapist is many ways. Physically, and mentally fatigue can creep up without a counselor realizing the effects of burn out, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue. As a counselor, it is important that we recognize the signs and symptoms of burn-out. Overall, a mentally healthy counselor is much more effective in counseling their client, than a burned-out, fatigued counselor. Definition Burnout consists of loss of energy to…