Combating Compassion Fatigue by Nurses - Essay Example

Combating Compassion Fatigue Introduction Most articles confirm that nurses and healthcare providers are at the highest risk of getting compassion fatigue. In everyday life, caregivers play an important role in supporting the health of patients in a challenging environment that offers heart wrenching and emotional related problems. Due to such situations, a nursing profession has become quite challenging activity thus requires complexity and specialization in handling emergency situations. The negative aspect of compassion fatigue nursing entails consistent absenteeism, persistent conflict and depression in the line of duty. Therefore, compassion fatigue is characterized by extraneous stress resulting from poor working condition of the caregiver. Most psychologists from the United States clarify that new recruits in nursing often find themselves in similar situations even before they are fully absorbed in the profession (Ekedahl & Wengström, 2008). Signs of a compassionate fatigue Regardless of whatever signs a patient may exhibit, symptom of compassion fatigue translates into stress after, which other negative signs accompanied by physical changes become visible (Bush, 2009). While most of the symptoms associated with the above condition can be controlled, there is no magic that compassion fatigue can be dealt with completely. Some of the most usual signs of compassion fatigue include the following: Exhaustion - Most caregivers may feel exhausted at the beginning of the day even before they commence working on their duties thus entertaining a lot of laxities even after having spent a week of relaxation, they would still feel physical weary (Bush, 2009). Increased consumption of alcohol - It has been pointed out that the working day long full of stress, some nurses do resort to engaging into alcohol consumption to unwound stress that they have encountered after a hard day engagements with the patients. However, increases resilience on alcohol will not generate anything constructive instead leads to irritability and loss of money (Bush, 2009). Inability to make a personal decision - It has also been identified that caregivers who are undergoing compassion fatigue situation often feel a sense of incompetency to make a personal decision. Some nurses who are extremely stressed would get to an extent of doubting their clinical competencies. Others would go to the extent of consulting on a simple issue that could have otherwise been solved without engaging another party (Bush, 2009). Depersonalization - People who are associated with compassion fatigue-disorder tend to distance themselves from active sessions with patients. It is advisable that nurses and clinicians should have close relationships with patient as part of quick recovery. However, when a caregiver distances himself from the patient, it would be considered as a sign of compassion fatigue (Bush, 2009). Anger towards perpetrators and casual events - A person suffering from compassion fatigue would mostly be associated with irritability, depression and high pretension, it is pointed out that such individual are subjected to acute anger and may become aggressive even on very slight issues (Bush, 2009).. Nature of the Problems and their Causes Based on Espeland’s (2006), cognitive behavior and health of a healthcare giver, person abilities to effective reasoning greatly depend on the environment and the type of work they performed. Besides, cognitive syndrome is mainly characterized by increased sense of individual dissatisfaction, interpersonal social contact and a feeling of indifference concerning the relationship with patients. Compassionate fatigue is predominant disorder in doctors, nurses and other practitioners within healthcare fraternity who associates more directly with patients. It has been pointed out that under extreme conditions, compassion fatigue may be experienced between healthcare givers and their family members. Most research have discovered that emotional distortion often affects healthcare practitioners who have witnessed patients suffering under serious medical condition where they are not able to get over. Nurses are often in close relationship with patients from the first day all the way throughout the period of suffering to recovery of loss of life. A situation such as the one above act is the principal foundation to compassion fatigue. Physical emotion and spiritual needs of a caregiver in relation to compassion fatigue According to Espeland (2006), compassion fatigue covers emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of healthcare providers who are in full companion with patients throughout their situations of suffering. Clinicians or active nurses who are in touch with patients get the feeling of suffering due to close the relationship that they share with the patients. Nurses, for instance, are highly susceptible to both emotional and mental distortion when they relate such sufferings to their siblings or family members. Due to consistent interaction and persistent attachment to similar conditions, caregivers may engage into unethical physical activities such as indulging into alcohol or drug abuse so as to ease depression. Some of the caregivers also tend to distance themselves from physical consultative forums with a perception that it would help erase such images from their memory. Conclusively, persistent sufferings patients may bring an impression that alters the faith of an individual. In essence, a Christian nurse who sees an infant suffering may be tempted to doubt the presence of Christ. Copying up strategies that may be of importance to the caregiver As a patient who is experiencing compassion fatigue, the first impression should be to accept the situation because acceptance would act as a stepping stone to cope up with issues of stress, pain and suffering. For a quicker recovery from such a condition, patients are advised to seek an authentic self-care medication by understanding ones condition such as emotions and working towards ensuring that there is no indulgence into activities that would stir aggression. Some vital steps toward self-medication would include accepting the spirit of self-kindness, seeking for awareness campaign, understanding the working environment, listening to other people with similar problems and seeking for assistance verbally amongst other alternatives (AHC Media, 2010). Burnout Burnout is a state of condition characterized by emotional exhaustion, seeking personal accomplishments among active persons in line of any duty with an expectation of negativity out of duty. Burnout is mostly associated with persistent disappointment, tiredness and feeling a complete state of tattered nervous system. Psychological scholars have pointed various attributes to burnout including issues of work and organizational related factors. However, a lot of burnouts have to do with extreme stress condition originating from different aspects of life. Despite the fact that causes of burnouts can be traced to different environments, research suggests that the main source of burnout is the organizational environment (Maslach, 2003; Himelstein 2004). The main symptom of burnout includes extreme body exhaustion that drains a person both physically and mentally leaving one in a state of minimal or no energy. Besides, people who are perceived to have contracted burnout are often less motivated. Such individuals do not have feelings to carry out their duties as usual. Instead, majority would claim of wanting to have some rest especially in the morning even when they have performed no task. Such a condition also draws negative perception of individual who may feel that whatever the activity that they carry may be less rewarding. It is pointed out that consistent chronic stress may create avenue to medical complications such as ulcers or obesity. However, it is advised that patients suffering from burnouts should set up adequate time to relax, get enough time to sleep and set some time to be out of formal communication clarifies (Maslach, 2003). Conclusion Compassion fatigue being common among healthcare providers today requires a proper approach and acceptance by the people involved in such a condition for a quick recovery. The paper has pointed out that compassion fatigue requires of attention from family members, institutional managers and all associated members of health care fraternity to be eradicated or else it would remain an elusive pandemic of healthcare providers. The paper has also identified burnout as a chronic stress that can mainly be dealt with by getting enough relaxation. The paper has identified various causes of both compassion fatigue and burnout and recommended that the best precaution should be personal acceptance followed by other medicinal approaches. References: Ekedahl, M., & Wengström, Y. (2008). Coping processes in a multidisciplinary healthcare team– A comparison of nurses in cancer care and hospital chaplains. European Journal of Cancer Care, 17(1), 42-48. Bush, N. J. (2009). Compassion fatigue: are you at risk?. In Oncology Nursing Forum (Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 24-28). Oncology Nursing Society. Espeland, K. E. (2006). Overcoming burnout: how to revitalize your career. Journal of continuing education in nursing, 37(4), 178-184. AHC Media. (2010). Program to combat compassion fatigue. Atlanta united states. Hospice Management Advisor, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/760252655?accountid=7374 Maslach, C. (2003). Burnout: the cost of caring. Cambridge, MA : ISHK Himelstein, B. P., Hilden, J. M., Boldt, A. M., & Weissman, D. (2004). Pediatric palliative care. New England Journal of Medicine, 350(17), 1752-1762. Read More