Combating Compassion Fatigue - Essay Example

? Combating Compassion Fatigue Introduction Caregivers engage in a myriad of care-related activities and would thusbe expected to show compassion everyday in their engagements with patients. In their sustenance and emotional balance in dealing with patients’ despair and their hopefulness at the same time, caregivers need some complex emotions known as compassion (Mathieu, 2012). Compassion serves as a caregiver’s core value with its essence giving nursing its expected soulfulness and healing resources. In the course of executing their duties, the emotional shifts and giving experienced by care-giving professionals could drain them focusing on their care for others and sacrifice taking care for themselves leading to compassion fatigue would. Adopting the definition by C. Figley, Sabo (2011) defines compassion fatigue as “natural consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other – the stress resulting from helping, or wanting to help, a traumatized or suffering person.” The suffering and trauma experienced by the patient would trigger a response on varied levels in the caregiver thus varied empathy and engagement abilities with theorists arguing on individuals possessing high empathic response and empathy levels to the pain, traumatic experience and suffering of patients as being more vulnerable (Bush, 2009). From the inception of the term compassion fatigue, it has been widely associated with burnout, not only from the workplace negative environmental stressors but also from the physical and emotional needs of the patients which contribute to the caregivers’ anger, depression, tiredness and ineffectiveness. With a long term exposure to loss and trauma, caregivers would begin integrating their patients’ grief, fear and emotions which would increase their own emotional pain and stress. The theory behind vicarious trauma postulates that such exposure to trauma changes the caregiver’s perspective or cognitive schema with regard to life issues like control, self esteem and intimacy. Secondary traumatic stress would incorporate both vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue due to empathic engagement with the resultant behaviors and emotions resulting in acute stress disorder. Bush (2009) differentiates these noting that burnout involves emotional exhaustion, vicarious trauma involves cognitive schema changes and compassion fatigue involves loss of self. Warning Signs Although the symptoms associated with compassion fatigue vary from one caregiver to another, there are red flags that indicate its existence. Considering the five concepts associated with compassion fatigue, first, the cognitive symptoms would include lowered concentration, rigidity, disorientation, preoccupation with trauma, minimization and apathy. Secondly, warning signs in relation to emotional consideration would encompass fear, numbness, anger, guilt, anxiety, powerlessness, hopelessness, depression, sadness, shock, troubling dreams experience and enhanced or blunted affect. Behaviorally, caregivers faced with compassion fatigue would be irritable, moody and withdrawn and would experience poor sleep, change of appetite, hyper-vigilance and nightmares. Those affected spiritually would question the meaning of life, lose purpose, question religious beliefs, lose faith and lose purpose. Finally, the somatic symptoms associated with compassion fatigue encompass sweating, breathing difficulty, pains and aches, rapid heartbeat, headaches, impaired immune system and difficulty in staying or falling asleep (Mathieu, 2012). Nature of Problems and their Causes Working environment has been widely referenced as a key contributor to compassion fatigue. Prolonged exposure to environments presenting stressors including lack of colleague and administrative support and understaffing would keep caregivers under a situation of constant isolation and alertness which eventually causes mental and physical exhaustion. Interestingly, Bush (2009) notes that younger caregivers would be more prone to compassion fatigue than their older counterparts because of their unpreparedness for heavy workloads, role ambiguity and changing environments. While reviewing previous research studies, the researcher also noted that inadequate resources in addition to coworker and physician related issues contribute to compassion fatigue. Espeland (2006) contributed to the knowledge on causes of compassion fatigue pointing out at the caregiver’s character traits as possible cause of compassion fatigue. Among the personality traits noted to put a caregiver at a higher risk include low hardiness, possession of external locus of control, those who adopt passive coping styles for stress, exhibition of unrealistic expectations and type A personality. The contribution of Bush (2009) to this postulation indicates that being idealistic, committed and highly motivated as a caregiver could result to compassion fatigue, possibly due to the experienced losses which cause despair and disappointment. These causes result in a myriad of problems in a healthcare setting. Referring to the human cost of compassion fatigue, Mathieu (2012) appreciates that caregivers experiencing compassion fatigue would be prone to making mistakes to work and their job performance declines. Also associated with the problem would be increase in personal relationship issues and drop of morale at workplace. Individually, compassion fatigue would result in low self esteem, guilt feeling and reduced effectiveness in various aspects of life. Needs of the Caregiver The definition of compassion fatigue points out to the physical, spiritual and emotional depletion associated with the phenomenon. Caregiving chores could cause tangible physical pains, aches or even illnesses due to their constant exposure to grief and loss. It not only depletes the physical but also the spiritual lives of those involved. With the building up of emotional stress and physical exhaustion overwhelms a caregiver, there would be a feeling of emptiness. According to the Caregiver Foundation of America (2013), spiritual and emotional needs of caregivers would often be ignored as they would be more preoccupied with practical needs, pushing aside other critical needs. They would be filled with guilt in an attempt to ask for emotional support when this is the expectation of the society from them. In fact, Sabo (2011) notes that the closer the bond between the patient and caregiver, the greater the fatigue and stress. Volunteers have been commonly used to bridge this gap and give caregivers a listening to their needs. In addition, it would be important to offer caregivers training that would help them meet their physical and emotional needs. Coping Strategies and Resources As a caregiver, when I start handling the needs of others, I fail to consider my own. As such, it would be worth finding strategies to replenish my physical, spiritual and emotional needs. Mathieu (2011) recommends that as a caregiver, healthy rituals would be important in coping with compassion fatigue. Healthy rituals refer to the regular activities in which one participates so as to replenish one’s energy and propagate wellness. This would include intake of adequate nutrition, sleep, exercises and hydration. New approaches such as taking up yoga classes, massage, tai-chi or meditation would offer the much needed help (Sabo, 2011). Maintenance of regular contact with friends and family members and participating in recreational activities would help meet the social needs of a caregiver. Attending pastoral programs would be crucial in replenishing the spiritual needs as a caregiver. It would offer reminiscence in times of loss and offering either individual or group counseling programs. According to Espeland (2006), these strategies address the social support needed by the caregivers. The second category of coping strategies according to Espeland (2006) would be those needed for maintenance of task-focused behaviors. The strategies under this category include using problems solving tools by thinking and planning those needed to be done then adopting active approach in assisting others. Secondly, there would be need to generate solutions to problems whether related to an individual or the peers. Whenever help would be needed, it would be important to request for it. It would also be critical to seek for information that would assist in changes in caregiving. I would focus on the work at hand and whenever expectations seem unachievable, it would be important to revise them so as to reflect the reality. Conclusion Compassion has been noted as an important emotion for caregivers. But constant emotional shifts leads to compassion fatigue whose signs could be cognitive, behavioral, emotional, somatic or spiritual. The associated problems could either be work or behaviorally related. Care giving depletes more than just the physical lives of caregivers. The physical, spiritual and emotional needs of a caregiver articulate the demands from the body, mind and spirit. As such, caregivers have adopted various strategies to cope including addressing social support and promoting task-focused behaviors. References Bush, N. J. (2009). Compassion fatigue: are you at risk? Oncology Nursing Forum, 36(1), 24 – 27. Caregiver Foundation of America (2013). About caregiving. Retrieved 28 January 2013 from http://thecaregiverfoundation.org Espeland, K. E. (2006). Overcoming burnout: how to revitalize your career. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 37(4), 178 – 184. Mathieu, F. (2012). The compassion fatigue workbook: creative tools for transforming compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization. New York, NY: Routledge. Sabo, B. (2011). Reflecting on the concept of compassion fatigue. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16. Retrieved 26 January 2013 from www.nursingworld.org Read More