There is a distinct difference between compassion fatigue and burnout. Burnout is a term used to describe exhaustion, lack of enthusiasm, and motivation to continue to work. For healthcare professionals, associate burnout with decreased retention, patient satisfaction, and increased turnover. However, define compassion fatigue as a continuous empathetic and intense contact with patients. The symptoms for both are quite the same, but significantly different. However, the difference is burnout can cause disengagement, withdrawal, and decreased motivation from the patients. Rather, compassion fatigue is rapid and starts with over involvement in patient care, and compassion satisfaction. According to Figley (1995), burnout could be a catalyst for
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The method is parallel to the nursing process. The symptoms are work-related such as frequent absent days for work (used as sick days), prevent or disdain of working with particular patients or decreased the ability to feel empathy towards patients and family. The symptoms are physical: frequent headaches, fatigue, too much sleep, GI or cardiac complications. Emotional symptoms include: mood swings, memory problems, anxiety, and restlessness (Potter et al., 2013). It is important to then collect important information about the nurse. Assess the nurse’s involvement with the patient, understand the nurse’s usual activities to ensure the correct implementation and evaluate the nurse’s work setting and work conditions. Understanding and assessing the nurse’s symptoms helps differentiate between a bad week due to environmental factors and compassion fatigue (Aycock & Boyle, 2009). Compassion fatigue can affect nurses: job performance, foster a negative perspective, which in turn negatively affects their relationships, increased medical mistakes, shift in personality change and desire to leave their …show more content…
In addition, nurses need a plan of care to achieve work-life balance. The plan should include exercising, leisure activities and sleep up to eight hours. Nurses need to develop a personal plan and have it checked by their unit leader to ensure that the nurse is progressing in recovery. (Potter et al., 2013). An intentional stride from the institutions to create a hospital environment that is healthy for workers to attend is important. There should always be a way to increase wellness and decrease stress in the nurse’s life. One effective way is by having adequate staffing to decrease the emotional and physical toll that nurses undergo, especially in high intensity units such as an Intensive Care Unit, Hospice, and Oncology. Supervisors should always keep an open door to communicate to healthcare personnel. An alternative route is one on ones with the healthcare providers in their unit. The institutional support is vital in letting the caregivers know that they are just as important as the patients they take care of (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Once healthcare personnel receive optimal care, there is assurance that excellent care is given to patients. Essentially the entire unit: nursing leaders, individual nurses and the healthcare facility need to work together to combat compassion fatigue,
The method is parallel to the nursing process. The symptoms are work-related such as frequent absent days for work (used as sick days), prevent or disdain of working with particular patients or decreased the ability to feel empathy towards patients and family. The symptoms are physical: frequent headaches, fatigue, too much sleep, GI or cardiac complications. Emotional symptoms include: mood swings, memory problems, anxiety, and restlessness (Potter et al., 2013). It is important to then collect important information about the nurse. Assess the nurse’s involvement with the patient, understand the nurse’s usual activities to ensure the correct implementation and evaluate the nurse’s work setting and work conditions. Understanding and assessing the nurse’s symptoms helps differentiate between a bad week due to environmental factors and compassion fatigue (Aycock & Boyle, 2009). Compassion fatigue can affect nurses: job performance, foster a negative perspective, which in turn negatively affects their relationships, increased medical mistakes, shift in personality change and desire to leave their …show more content…
In addition, nurses need a plan of care to achieve work-life balance. The plan should include exercising, leisure activities and sleep up to eight hours. Nurses need to develop a personal plan and have it checked by their unit leader to ensure that the nurse is progressing in recovery. (Potter et al., 2013). An intentional stride from the institutions to create a hospital environment that is healthy for workers to attend is important. There should always be a way to increase wellness and decrease stress in the nurse’s life. One effective way is by having adequate staffing to decrease the emotional and physical toll that nurses undergo, especially in high intensity units such as an Intensive Care Unit, Hospice, and Oncology. Supervisors should always keep an open door to communicate to healthcare personnel. An alternative route is one on ones with the healthcare providers in their unit. The institutional support is vital in letting the caregivers know that they are just as important as the patients they take care of (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011). Once healthcare personnel receive optimal care, there is assurance that excellent care is given to patients. Essentially the entire unit: nursing leaders, individual nurses and the healthcare facility need to work together to combat compassion fatigue,