Caregiver Burnout and Compassion Fatigue
Compassion fatigue
A majority of the nurses enter the field with a genuine intention of assisting others as well as offering emphatic care for people with serious spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical needs. However, caring and emphatic nurses can end up being victims as a result of the ongoing stress of catering for the overwhelming needs of families and patients, which results to compassion fatigue. Not only does compassion fatigue influence a nurse’s physical and emotional health and job satisfaction, it also has a negative impact on the workplace environment since it increases turnover and reduces productivity (Espeland, 2006).
Basically, compassion fatigue involves a combination of spiritual, emotional, and physical depletion linked to caring for patients who are in significant physical distress and emotional pain. It is a unique type of burnout that affects people in caregiving roles. Nurses working in any specialty can be can be impacted on by this fatigue while offering emphatic care as a result of sharing in the pain that the family and patient is going through.
Compassion fatigue’s symptoms are either emotional, physical, work-related or a combination of these. The development of an intervention plan should encompass acknowledgement of the problem as the first step. Espeland (2006) argues that a basic assessment should involving gathering comprehensive information about the nurse.
It is worth noting that interpersonal and emphatic caring skills are key components of the nursing obligation. A nurse that is experiencing compassion fatigue requires guidance and help from a professional counselor or mentor to assist with intervention processes and personalized assessment. The principal emphatic relationship between nurses and patients is emphasized in Watson’s human caring theory.
Combating compassion fatigue
Stressed providers who are under the influence of compassion fatigue are unable to provide optimal care. However, healthcare providers require immense compassion so as to be able to build rapport with their patients as well as make connections. The inability to provide compassion during health care practices ends up being reflected in clinical care (Espeland, 2006). Compassion fatigue is an attitude where providers are unmotivated, tired, and not providing prompt care.
Compassion fatigue can be managed through a self-care program where computerized graphic presentations can be made during health care professionals’ monthly meetings. Some of the presentations can include a definition of compassion fatigue and some of its symptoms. Self- awareness is a principal component and it prevents providers from avoiding a patient they think is difficult. According to Espeland (2006), effective management of compassion fatigue also prevents health care providers from being irritable towards co-workers and patients. Some symptoms that can be identified easily among providers suffering from compassion fatigue include constipation, anxiety, and extreme nervousness. After acknowledging that they are suffering from the condition, providers are asked to promise that they will care for themselves. Consequently, there is a constant check that this promise is being kept. Providers are supposed to promise doing something for themselves daily and planning something they can look forward to at the end of the week. The program should be provided in various units or departments and incorporated in employees’ orientation and lecture series.
Overcoming Burnout: How to Revitalize your Career
Burnout is becoming very rampant within the healthcare profession. Some of the symptoms of burnout include frustration, feeling overworked, less productivity, and emotional drainage (Espeland, 2006). Healthcare professionals are likely to experience physical symptoms, interpersonal conflicts, decreased productivity, compulsive activities, constant frustration, becoming cynical, and negative emotions. These are danger signals that should be taken seriously. Although people experiencing burnout may harbor the believe that they might not be in a position to transform their situation, pinpointing the cause is key overcoming job burnout (Espeland, 2006). In this regard, it is extremely important to change thought processes as well as viewpoints regarding the things and people that may be causing the burnout. This helps in transforming the burnout state and revitalizing a career.
A burnout involves a subtle process where a person is gradually immerses in a mental fatigue state and is entirely energy-drained and completely empty. Often, nurses find themselves in this state where they feel overwhelmed and overworked as a result limited time and competing demands. They suffer from burnout and stress more as opposed to other comparable groups. The nursing profession is affected pervasively by this unique form of stress syndrome where it is considered to be a universal phenomenon (Espeland, 2006). Nurses who are experiencing burnout plan on leaving their jobs as a result of job dissatisfaction.
There are several factors that contribute greatly to job burnout. First, nurses may have ambiguity results due to lack of vivid goals and information. When nurses are unsure of what is expected, they can barely be confident that they are doing right things. The second is role overload where nurses have many responsibilities to carry out and cannot say no. They eventually experience a burnout. Third is role conflict where nurses experience conflicting responsibilities and end up feeling pulled in different directions. They may try to handle all roles equally without setting priorities (Espeland, 2006). Finally, if nurses are underpaid, they may have a believe that their outputs and efforts are not recognized sufficiently.
Burnout among nurses can be reduced or managed through setting boundaries and assertiveness, changing thought processes, avoiding negative communication, caring for the nurses’ physical and emotional health, forgiving others and the self, growing professionally, and collaborating positively with the colleagues.
Resolving and identifying tension and pressure in the workplace through the use of the solution- focused model
Lack of vivid role definitions and huge workloads often result to high levels of stress. As a result, there is marked low productivity, increased sick leave, and poor wellbeing and health. the process for reducing stress requires constant team reviews for around six months, which ensures manageable stress levels. In addition, there is a need for continuing self-reflection that helps in acknowledging the links between stresses inside and outside the workplace and the repercussions of personal factors one’s practice (Ekehadl & Wengstrom, 2008).
The solution- focused therapy is a ‘now-and-here’ approach that focuses on the future and present as opposed to the past. There is a keen focus on the resources and strengths and the main aim is building solutions as opposed to solving problems. Regardless of the fact that it is important to acknowledge and hear problems, the solution-focused therapy is founded on the premise that concentrating on the challenges too much may perpetuate them and hinder the formulation of solutions (Ekehadl & Wengstrom, 2008). This therapy is associated with benefits such as improved psychological health, positive impacts on patients with long-term sick leaves, higher rates of returning to work, and more working days.
Struggles and stressors never cease. Therefore, coping framework is what is important. This empowers nurses to offer equitable and consistent services that manage the needs of their patients.
Work- related stress: Coping processes in a multidisciplinary healthcare team
Nurses in hospital chaplains and cancer care units use revaluating, reconstructive, and preserving coping strategies (Ekehadl & Wengstrom, 2008). The increase use of recreative coping strategies that are totally transforming in hospital chaplains indicates that chaplains utilize a wider scope of strategies to deal with stress. Nurses mostly use the preserving strategy both privately and at work. Boundary demarcation is acknowledged as a dominant general strategy where there are particular coping strategies including caritas oblivion and ventilation as effective coping strategies that allow a nurse to forget dead patients and pay more attention on the living ones (Ekehadl & Wengstrom, 2008).
Working in the health care sector transforms an individual’s outlook of life. In the multidisciplinary team, these commonalities are viewed as a coping mechanism and collaboration for the patient’s benefit is made easier. A nurse should be able to understand the patient so as to be able to care for the patient in a better way.
Boundary demarcation is a dominant coping mechanism that is used frequently among chaplains and nurses. For professionals to be able to support one another appropriately within a multidisciplinary team, there is a need to mark boundaries and define roles clearly. Defining roles clearly may require the use of patient-focused care (Ekehadl & Wengstrom, 2008).
It is extremely important to create good relationships with all colleagues, which is useful in alleviating work-related stress.
References
Ekehadl, M., & Wengstrom, 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, 42- 48.
Espeland, K. E. (2006). Overcoming Burnout: How to Revitalize Your Career. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 37(4), 178- 184.
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