Nurses Suffering From Compassion Fatigue Research Paper

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Compassion Fatigue Among Nurses

Many professionals in the nursing field enter this field with the view of helping others through offering empathetic care for patients with various kinds of conditions including physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual care needs. Therefore, this profession can be regarded as a hard physical, emotional, and spiritual work that can also be very satisfying and rewarding. Given the nature of the nursing profession and practice, these professionals are increasingly likely to suffer from burnout or compassion fatigue. This paper explores compassion fatigue among nurses in light of the demands of providing care to patients with varying health care needs such as physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological needs. The examination includes a literature review on the topic, analysis of evidence, implications of practice, and recommendations and conclusions.

Literature Review

Wisniewski (2013) describes the nursing profession as a hard physical, spiritual, and emotional work that is also very satisfying and rewarding. As a result of the nature of nursing profession, turmoil and tension can easily arise from the territory of being a nurse. Krischke (2013) concurs by arguing that nurse burnout is usually the result of the working environment because of demands, workspace design, scheduling, and assignment levels. However, Krischke (2013) states that nurse burnout is different from compassion fatigue because of the different factors that contributes to these elements and different solutions in addressing them. Generally, nurse burnout is a by-product of the tensions and turmoil of nursing practice whereas compassion fatigue is physical, spiritual, and emotional exhaustion from seeing and absorbing other people's sufferings and problems (Krischke, 2013).

Lombardo & Eyre (2011) agree with Krischke (2013) by stating that compassion fatigue is a mixture of spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that is linked to caring for patients in considerable physical and/or emotional pain. While there are several definitions of compassion fatigue, this description was provided by a nurse who identified this type of fatigue as a distinctive kind of burnout with significant impact on people in caregiving roles. A similar definition of compassion fatigue is provided by Boyle (2011) who states that it refers to a certain state of psychic exhaustion. Boyle (2011) proceeds to argue that compassion fatigue is attributed to the cost of caring and emerges from long standing or subsequent strain and weariness that develops over time.

In relation to the impact of compassion fatigue among nurses, Landro (2012) states that when nurses suffer from this condition, the hospital, nurses, patients, and families suffer. In essence, compassion fatigue has been associated with reduced productivity, high turnover of nurses, and more sick days. For patients, compassion fatigue sometimes contribute to increased hospital stay since nurses lose their ability to attend to patients' varying needs in a suitable and effective manner. Sheppard (2014), states that unresolved compassion fatigue usually generates physical and emotional exhaustion that can hinder job performance (p.57). The condition has usually been linked to more absenteeism and high turnover among various healthcare providers like registered nurses. Compassion fatigue is regarded as one of major risk factors in delivery of substandard care since it lessens nurses' empathy and makes them fear or avoid some patients (Landro, 2012).

The effect of compassion fatigue on nurses' job performance and care delivery contribute to the need to address this nurse practice issue. Lombardo & Eyre (2011), states that the first intervention measure for compassion fatigue is reviewing resources available in the working environment. This could involve the development of an Employee Assistance Program that focuses on decreasing stress in nurse practice, improve work-life balance, and offering help for workers experiencing conditions like compassion fatigue. Secondly, positive self-care strategies and healthy rituals should be developed. Third, a comfortable and relaxing environment in a predetermined place on the nursing unit should be established to help in relaxation of these professionals and avoiding compassion fatigue and/or burnout. The other intervention measure for dealing with compassion fatigue is use of nurse support groups that play a crucial role in lessening stress and preventing the condition. Boyle (2011) advocates for work setting intervention measures like on-site counseling, debriefing sessions, massage sessions, attention to spiritual needs, and art therapy.

Exploration and Analysis

As evident in the literature review, compassion fatigue is a major issue in the nursing field that has significant impact on nurses' job performance and delivery of care services. The emergence of compassion fatigue can be attributed to the fact that compassion is a major component of nursing practice ("Compassion Fatigue," 2014).

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Generally, it's a natural response for an individual including a nurse to react with compassion when seeing the physical and emotional pain of another person. Therefore, compassion is a necessary characteristic for a person to be successful and effective in the nursing profession. Compassion fatigue emerges from the overwhelming experiences nurses undergo when attending to the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs or pain of patients. In essence, compassion fatigue is regarded as the cost of caring for other individuals experiencing physical and emotional pain. Nurses are increasingly vulnerable to compassion fatigue because of the nature and demands of their work. Some of the factors that can enhance a nurse's vulnerability to compassion fatigue include long working hours and exposure to overwhelming situations of physical and emotional pain. Ray et. al. (2013) states that compassion fatigue is brought by individual and situational factors in the working environment, particularly among frontline staff nurses (p.263).

While nurses may be unable to avoid some of these risk factors, it is increasingly important to develop appropriate strategies to prevent the chances of suffering from compassion fatigue. The prevention of compassion fatigue is not only a responsibility of nurse managers and nurse leaders but also a responsibility of nurses themselves. The need to prevent nurses' likelihood of suffering from compassion fatigue is the devastating effects the condition can have on the well-being of nurses and their ability to provide standard and effective care based on the patients' needs (Braunschneider, 2013, p.14). This implies that hospital administrators and nurses themselves should utilize concerted efforts to develop and utilize available resources to prevent and deal with compassion fatigue.

One of the major ways through which nurses can prevent their likelihood of suffering from compassion fatigue is to maintain realistic expectations for themselves and patients. Secondly, these professionals should develop measures that enable them to avoid being too emotionally attached to patients and their families. In contrast, hospital administrators and nurse managers should utilize the various available measures for preventing compassion fatigue among nurses. The use of these varying measures should be based on the specific factors of the working environment i.e. situational factors. Some of these initiatives include enhancing recognition and awareness of the condition while assisting nurses to identify interventions that help them remain compassionate and empathetic professionals without being too emotionally attached (Hunsaker, Chen, Maughan & Heaston, 2015, p.186).

Implications for Practice

In light of the nature and demands of the nursing profession, compassion fatigue is a major threat to effectiveness in the nursing practice. This analysis demonstrates that compassion fatigue is a major risk factor to effectiveness in my nursing practice since the basis of my nursing practice is compassion. It is important for me to identify and avoid personal and situational factors that may enhance my vulnerability to suffering from compassion fatigue. As a compassionate and empathetic professional, I recognize the likelihood of suffering from compassion fatigue and the need to identify personal and organization strategies that help in avoiding the situations and its associated devastating effects.

Based on knowledge gained from the analysis, I will maintain realistic expectations for myself and patients across practice and care delivery initiatives. Moreover, I will engage in processes that help me avoid become too emotionally attached to patients and their families in order to lessen exposure to overwhelming painful situations of patients. These strategies will be adopted on the premise that avoiding compassion fatigue requires nurses to maintain realistic expectations and refrain from being too emotionally attached (Braunschneider, 2013, p.14). These strategies will be implemented in combination with organizational measures established by hospital administrators and nurse managers.

Recommendations and Conclusions

In conclusion, compassion fatigue is a major threat to the effectiveness of nurses in delivery of care services and job performance because nursing practice is based on compassion. Therefore, nurses need to work in collaboration with hospital administrators to establish effective measures for preventing and dealing with this condition. The first recommendation for the class is to conduct more research on compassion fatigue in order to gain knowledge of the condition and its impact on day-to-day nursing practice. Secondly, these individuals should develop personal measures that they would use in preventing their likelihood of suffering from compassion fatigue in their nursing practice. Third, more research should be conducted to help in identifying appropriate work policies that prevent and/or deal with compassion fatigue......

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