Compassion fatigue (CF) is the accumulation of months and years of exposure to patients with emotional pain. Let’s talk about what you can do right now to help yourself feel more positive. Being proactive about your mental health is just as important as your other everyday needs.
Simone Biles withdrew from some of her Olympic events because she felt like her mind and body were not in sync. Bedside nurses quite often feel the same way ... mind and body out of sync.
Have you ever been at work and felt like you were being pulled in multiple directions? You are trying to start your shift with your first patient in an organized way. This is not possible!! One patient is calling for pain medications, another unstable patient is climbing out of bed with the bed alarm blaring, and we do not have enough staff today to answer all the call lights and alarms going off! Welcome to a typical day in the life of a bedside nurse
It's like being the short-order cook at a crowded diner. You are trying to keep up but you also have to be the hostess, the waitress, the busboy/busgirl and sometimes the manager at the same time! Before having one sip of your coffee, you are being hunted down by nurses from the previous shift who want to unload report on you and go home. Your morning flies by. Halfway through your shift you still have not got a chance to go to the bathroom and you are feeling it from the super-sized coffee you drank this morning to wake yourself up.
The Price of Caring
In reality, for many nurses, the situations we encounter at work can leave us feeling hopeless and powerless. Physical and mental fatigue can seriously impact the quality of your life. Compassion fatigue (CF) is the accumulation of months and years of exposure to patients with emotional pain. We, as nurses, want our patients to know that we feel their pain, their physical and emotional pain. CF is the price of caring. You probably know that constant exposure to traumatic situations can lead to depression and anxiety. You have likely wondered why you feel this way. Let's talk about what you can do right now to help yourself feel more positive. Being proactive about your mental health is just as important as your other everyday needs.
What is Compassion Fatigue (CF)?
The concept "compassion fatigue" was coined by nurse Carla Joinson in 1992. As she described it, she noticed that nurses dealing with frequent heartache had lost their nurturing ability. This phenomenon is a combination of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and cumulative burnout (BO). STS is a state of stress which is extreme tension and preoccupation with emotional pain. BO is a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by having to deal with a constantly stressful environment.
CF is characterized by feeling burdened by another person's suffering, reduced ability to feel sympathy and empathy, blaming others for their suffering, loss of job satisfaction, insomnia, and alcohol and drug abuse. Decision-making can be negatively affected along with a caregiver's ability to adequately care for their patients. CF can be the cause of some nurses leaving their jobs and/or their nursing careers.
How to Deal with Compassion Fatigue: 3 Interventions
Mindfulness
Are you aware how you act on your days off? Ask your family or your main sources of support. Do they feel like you enjoy your career? Are you constantly complaining to them about your job? Are you able to separate work from home?
Work environment tips
Educate yourself about what resources might be available at work. Employee Assistance programs may offer assistance and counseling. These programs can help with stress reduction at work, work-life balance and effective communication strategies. Vocalize your needs to your coworkers instead of trying to do everything yourself. Don't be afraid to delegate tasks. Support groups can also help to allow you to debrief a situation and focus on what you accomplished rather than missed opportunities. Alternative approaches such as massage, journaling, prayer or meditation are valuable ways to reduce work-related stress.
Self-care
CF can threaten the quality of our abilities as a professional nurse and our quality of life. Most of us only allow a small amount of time to being selfish of our well-being. A mixed methods study done by Katherine Valentine Upton in an acute care setting showed the prevalence of CF in acute medical care nurses and its damaging effects from stress. The results of the study also showed the moderating effect of self-compassion. A self-care plan should include exercise, proper nutrition, spiritual health, and social activities. You must give as much importance to self-care as you do eating and sleeping. You need to take care of YOU!
While I think that there is limited value in these techniques I agree with others that the problem is the overall environment that nurses find themselves in with little to no control. The responsibilities of nurses has dramatically increased over the years while society has simultaneously devolved. I worked 10 years in Onc and then various other jobs in and out of the hospital. I was again ready to try something different so went back to the hospital and thought med-surg would be less intense than Oncology. Boy, I could not have been more mistaken. Med-surg was extremely more difficult than Onc was 20 yrs earlier. The hospital environment had changed even more since I had left. This was just so wrong and the majority of the problem was admin and all the new ridiculous requirements as well as the behavior and expectations of patients and families, it was totally out of control! I also had pretty much constant anxiety bc of the work environment and this was with many years experience, it was just ridiculous. Every nurse I worked with was constantly trying to figure how to get out, even the student nurses who came for clinical were plotting how to avoid the hospital. My "self care" technique while working was to tell myself that I can only do what admin allows me to do (meaning with the resources they gave me). Unfortunately this was all pre covid so I just cant even imagine now!! Until corporate greed seizes the situation will probably not get any better, sad to say.
1 hour ago, LovingLife123 said:
Daughter in law that I spoke never told me she was an RN, never let on, so I did lots of basic education and when patient told me later, I kind of felt like she was playing me for a fool.
Are you sure she was an RN? Even if she was I wouldn't take it like she was playing you for a fool. Having been on the other side (pt/family) I don't always tell the RN that I am also an RN depending on the situation. Sometimes I feel like it might sound like I am a know-it-all and don't want to step on toes, or sometimes becuase it is a different specialty and I want to make sure I don't miss anything.
Good luck with the interviews, hope your situation gets better!
While I think that there is limited value in these techniques I agree with others that the problem is the overall environment that nurses find themselves in with little to no control. The responsibilities of nurses has dramatically increased over the years while society has simultaneously devolved. I worked 10 years in Onc and then various other jobs in and out of the hospital. I was again ready to try something different so went back to the hospital and thought med-surg would be less intense than Oncology. Boy, I could not have been more mistaken. Med-surg was extremely more difficult than Onc was 20 yrs earlier. The hospital environment had changed even more since I had left. This was just so wrong and the majority of the problem was admin and all the new ridiculous requirements as well as the behavior and expectations of patients and families, it was totally out of control! I also had pretty much constant anxiety bc of the work environment and this was with many years experience, it was just ridiculous. Every nurse I worked with was constantly trying to figure how to get out, even the student nurses who came for clinical were plotting how to avoid the hospital. My "self care" technique while working was to tell myself that I can only do what admin allows me to do (meaning with the resources they gave me). Unfortunately this was all pre covid so I just cant even imagine now!! Until corporate greed seizes the situation will probably not get any better, sad to say.
Are you sure she was an RN? Even if she was I wouldn't take it like she was playing you for a fool. Having been on the other side (pt/family) I don't always tell the RN that I am also an RN depending on the situation. Sometimes I feel like it might sound like I am a know-it-all and don't want to step on toes, or sometimes becuase it is a different specialty and I want to make sure I don't miss anything.
Good luck with the interviews, hope your situation gets better!
You are right, maybe she wasn’t. Patient told me after she left she was an RN and doesn’t tell people. There was a lot of education happening when if I had known she was an RN it could have been cut by 3/4 and we could have had an actual conversation about the situation.
My unit and hospital are very stressful right now. I’m more than ready to jump ship. Without delving into much more let’s just for staff, this past month especially has been very stressful.
Be brave. I've never regretted starting a new position. At the very least, you can collect some knowledge to take with you if the job doesn't work out.
Daisy4RN
2,238 Posts
While I think that there is limited value in these techniques I agree with others that the problem is the overall environment that nurses find themselves in with little to no control. The responsibilities of nurses has dramatically increased over the years while society has simultaneously devolved. I worked 10 years in Onc and then various other jobs in and out of the hospital. I was again ready to try something different so went back to the hospital and thought med-surg would be less intense than Oncology. Boy, I could not have been more mistaken. Med-surg was extremely more difficult than Onc was 20 yrs earlier. The hospital environment had changed even more since I had left. This was just so wrong and the majority of the problem was admin and all the new ridiculous requirements as well as the behavior and expectations of patients and families, it was totally out of control! I also had pretty much constant anxiety bc of the work environment and this was with many years experience, it was just ridiculous. Every nurse I worked with was constantly trying to figure how to get out, even the student nurses who came for clinical were plotting how to avoid the hospital. My "self care" technique while working was to tell myself that I can only do what admin allows me to do (meaning with the resources they gave me). Unfortunately this was all pre covid so I just cant even imagine now!! Until corporate greed seizes the situation will probably not get any better, sad to say.
Are you sure she was an RN? Even if she was I wouldn't take it like she was playing you for a fool. Having been on the other side (pt/family) I don't always tell the RN that I am also an RN depending on the situation. Sometimes I feel like it might sound like I am a know-it-all and don't want to step on toes, or sometimes becuase it is a different specialty and I want to make sure I don't miss anything.
Good luck with the interviews, hope your situation gets better!