Also known as “cost of caring”, it is the combined spiritual, physical and emotional depletion experienced by care givers and is associated with caring for emotionally pained and physically distressed patients ("What is Compassion Fatigue? Signs, Treatment and Prevention", 2019). The article was informative and very interesting to me because I have been through it. After I was officially an LPN, and after passing my boards, I immediately got attached to a nursing home. Hitting the ground running, I would work on full time and sometimes even on overtime. This would change after a few months after I suffered a physical, emotional, and mental burn out. Little did I know that indeed, compassionate fatigue had caught up with me.
Just like discussed in the article, there is a symptoms similarity in burn out and compassion fatigue. The difference occurs only during the symptoms onset and the way the caregiver is affected. There is more progression in burn out on the side of the caregiver leading to indifference, withdrawal from the work environment and disengagement from patients as well. On the other hand, compassion fatigue is more acute precipitating over the involvement in patient care. Hopelessness's and feeling discouraged about one's life are also common in compassionate fatigue.
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One of the strategies to deal with compassion fatigue is talking it out with appropriate people who can resonate with the feelings and concerns of the affected nurse. From there, the nurse should develop positive self-care strategies and rituals that are healthy and essential when it comes to recovering from the post-traumatic stress. This is because nurses are inherently compassionate when caring for others that they often forget to care for themselves. Strategizing to reflect on areas that deserve improvement while setting aside some time to relax and renovate will assist the nurses on recuperating so that they can continue caring for others without getting compassionately fatigued. In sum, compassionate fatigue can lead to severe problems like anxiety, depression, as well as suicidal thoughts. It is for this reason that strategies and an action plan should be developed to shield the nurses from this secondary traumatization.
References
What is Compassion Fatigue? Signs, Treatment and Prevention. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/careers/blog/what-is-compassion-fatigue-signs-treatment-prevention
