Combating Compassion Fatigue Kadijatu Lewis
Grand Canyon University: HLT.310V
April 14th, 2013

Nursing is an emotional, physical spiritual and hard work. It is also rewarding and most times satisfying. Nurses witness pain and suffering of others daily, resulting in increase risk for emotional stress. Nurses also work under demanding conditions related to budget constraints, and short staff resulting in increase workload. Compassion fatigue is the last stage of compassion discomfort and compassion stress. The nursing profession does not provide adequate resources to help combat this condition, like other professionals who deal with similar situations. This paper will identify signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and ways of combating them. Compassionate fatigue is an emotional, physical and spiritual exhaustion from witnessing and absorbing the problems and suffering of others. Compassionate fatigue usually affect selfless, caring and sacrificing nurses who are emotional attached to their jobs. It usually comes on gradually. It usually occurs when a caregiver attempts to give out more compassion and energy than they are getting in return. When we exhibit compassion fatigue, our natural human desire to help is significantly diminished (Frandsen, 2010) Compassion fatigue manifest itself in different ways, these include feeling of exhaustion and overwhelm with ones assignment before the start of shift, this feeling occurs frequently than before, feeling of detachment from family, friends and co-workers, not wanting to participate in social activities and always staying home. Other signs and symptoms include feelings of unappreciation at work and at home, feeling sad most of the time leading to depression, feeling of paranoia, assuming coworkers and family members are talking negative things about you, change of work style to the I don't care attitude, performing job assignments at the minimal level and always complaining about the institution policies and procedures in a negative way. These symptoms and signs can go beyond the work place to care giver personal lives, putting a strain or burden to relationships. Recognizing, managing and relieving these issues are critical in combating compassion fatigue. Factors leading to burn out can be personality characteristics, care givers that are attached to their patients emotional or type A personalities tend to suffer from compassion fatigue, work related attitudes such as high expectations for positive patient outcomes in an unrealistic setting can increase the stress level of a care giver, high patient acuity or work load, Care givers often use the term 'burn out' often, but don't care or realize the consequences off the effect until symptoms become severe. Compassion fatigue can take different forms of signs and symptoms from physical and, emotional to spiritual indications. Physical indications occurs when the care giver continues to feel fatigue most of the time, sleeplessness or insomnia despite been very tired, frequent headaches and migraines, Gastro intestinal problems including ulcers, loss of appetite and anorexia, feeling of nervousness and sometimes high blood pressure. All these symptoms occur more frequently than usual. Emotional indications of compassion fatigue include depression or feeling of sadness most of the time, the care giver does not care about the quality of work performance, not thinking logically with patient care having difficulty process information related to patient care, feeling frustrated and hopelessness most of the time with one self and job, easily becoming irritable and dread coming to work. Feeling cynicism about self, co-workers and the world, voicing negative ideas or feelings towards co-workers, Feeling of apathy is another emotional indication of compassion fatigue, not caring about the job outcome or self anymore, feeling withdrawn, frequent calling in for schedule shifts and increase tardiness. Caregivers usually don't recognize the spiritual indications of compassion care if they are not spiritual incline in their life. Spiritual indications of compassion fatigue include dealing of disappointment with God or any spiritual connection the caregiver might be practicing. The Care giver feels God is powerless for this type of situation to occur without helping, feeling of abdondment by family and friends, not practicing or participating in religious programs, including going to church or places of worship. Stop praying or reading the bible can also be an indication of spiritual disconnection in compassion fatigue. Identifying and recognizing the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and seeking help sometimes-professional assistance can aid in combating compassion fatigue. Life style changes depending on the caregiver unique circumstance can be beneficial in combating these symptoms. At work, care giver should have an attitude of caring for oneself, this include taking schedule break times, setting boundaries, not working extra shifts if asked by supervisors, recognize ones limitation when it comes to patient care, know that it is not possible you stop all the problems in healthcare, but you are going to take care of your patient reasonably. continue to involve in educational seminars at work to help stimulate the mind and be more aware and involve in new trends. Request vacations as needed to help recharge oneself. Make list of enjoyable things you like and do it, these can include massages and taking long works alone or with your spouse. Try to exercise routinely and change to a healthy diet and nutrition, and get enough sleep frequently. Meditation helps to relax the mind and connect with inner feelings. Talk to friends and family about ways on how to balance home and job life. Connect with your spirituality by attending service regularly and participate in activities, talking to your spiritual leader and reading the bible or your books of religious meaning can help boost care givers mood resulting in positive outcomes. Sometimes changing jobs to a less stressful or demanding can assist a caregiver combating compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue also known as post traumatic stress disorder is common among care givers especially nurses that are at the forefront of caring for sick and terminally ill patients regularly. Unfortunately, nurses do not have adequate support form institutions in combating this condition. Knowing and caring for one self is the primary goal in combating compassion fatigue and requesting help or assistance form other resources can be beneficial.

REFERENCES -health chaplains ministry association (2005)balancing the burdens of care givinh,Avoiding compassion fatigue, retrieve April 15th ,2013 from HTTP\\ www.hcmachaplains.org/commendary2.html - Frandson 2010