One nurse comforting another in a COVID-19 unit. Photo credit: Daily Sabah A nurse’s professional quality of life is dictated the person’s level of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue (Stamm, 2010). Left untreated, compassion fatigue leads to burnout and secondary trauma in nurses. This results in nurses providing poor quality patient care due to the …
a safe space in a technologically advanced world
Photo credit: Pinterest Ensuring a safe space to process disenfranchised grief and compassion fatigue is critical to fostering a positive work environment. In the age of social media, mindfulness apps, employee portals, and near constant access to technology, this safe space can be harder and harder to find and maintain. Photo credit: Campaign Live In …
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The influence of the private sector
Photo credit: GRI Currently, the private sector has the largest impact on interventions combating compassion fatigue in nurses. This is likely due to the fact that there are no statewide benefits mandated by the public sector that are available for all nurses to partake. As our healthcare system copes with the massive COVID-19 pandemic, resources …
The influence of the public sector
Photo credit: The Sentinel The public sector is the part of the economy is made up of organizations owned and operated by the government. These include the military, law enforcement, government healthcare systems, government governing bodies, infrastructure agencies, public education, and public transit, among others. Considering the fact that the decisions made by public sector …
then and now: compassion fatigue
Photo credit: nursergram Compassion fatigue is a relatively new concept compared to the field of nursing. While the profession of nursing originates from the mid 19th century, one of the earliest mentions of compassion fatigue is by Carla Joinson in 1992. As mental health concerns and services have become more prominent in society over time, …
the ethical side of compassion fatigue
Photo credit: ldsliving.com Imagine this: A nurse serves as the primary nurse for a particular patient and family for several months. They form close bonds, becoming friends on social media and having playdates outside of work with the nurse’s children and the patient and siblings. The patient deteriorates and dies from his disease while he …
who are the brokenhearted heroes?
How do people become brokenhearted? Some might say broken hearts result from the dissolution of a relationship. Others might suggest that broken hearts are a consequence of traumatic loss. But every nurse I have ever met has had some form of a broken heart as a result of compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue. A term that …
Nurses and Compassion Fatigue 