(Murray, pg.2) As a nurse you deal with a lot of physical, mental and emotional stress. The stressed nurse may show physical sign of stress such as high blood pressure, headaches, nausea, chest pains and fatigue to just name a few. The behavioral signs are becoming withdrawn, under or over eating, and becoming accident prone and careless. (Murray, pg.4) The emotional signs of a nurse who may not be managing there stress are irritable, angers easily, depression and anxious. These symptoms can compromise the care of a patient or patients if not managed correctly.
Warning Signs for Five Concepts of Compassion Fatigue Physical Manifestations Compassion fatigue can manifest itself through physical symptoms. Some signs associated with compassion fatigue are weariness, loss of strength, reduced output, diminished performance, loss of endurance, and increased physical complaints such as gastrointestinal complaints, frequent headaches, back pains, hypertension, and insomnia (Coetzee & Klopper, 2010). Illness can lead to increase in sick calls that lead to increase in the work loads of other nurses, which then affects the safety and quality of care the patients receive. Emotional Manifestations Compassion fatigue can also manifest itself through emotional disturbances. Those suffering
Nurses always experience compassion fatigue compared to other health care professionals due to direct patient care and they spend more time with the patients compared to others. Health care professionals cannot fix everything, it makes them exhausted and disappointed with their work and experience compassion fatigue. It is very important for the health care professionals to care for themselves from compassion fatigue. Warning signs for compassion fatigue Compassion fatigue is an empathetic strain to the health care professionals. They focus on others and forget to care for themselves.
High levels of work place stress and professional burnout continually affects nurses and other health care workers globally. This paper will explore this nursing issue by articulating the concepts of stress and professional burnout relative to the nursing profession. The term stress is defined as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or as exceeding his or her resources and is endangering his or her well-being” (Wlodarczyk, & Lazarewicz, 2011 p.848). This definition focuses on how stress is connected to an individual’s awareness of their resources and environment. The term professional burnout is described as “physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that results from long-term involvement in work situations that are emotionally demanding” (Wlodarczyk, & Lazarewicz, 2011 p.848), highlighting how the work place environment is directly affecting an individual’s health and well-being.
The fatigued nurse becomes overwhelmed and can easily make mistakes such as medication errors or performing procedures on the wrong patient. They also begin to lose compassion for their patient and become more task oriented. Often times it gets to a point where they are just showing up for work and lose sight of their original desire to help an ill patient get better or make a difference in their patients day. We go into nursing with the intention to help people who need it and share with patients our nurturing personalities but that sometimes gets lost in the tangled web of stressful situations, long work weeks, long shifts, increasing patient-to-nurse ratios, constantly changing field, and not enough education on the support systems in place or methods for coping. One thing I’ve noticed to be very common with nurses is remembering to take care of themselves.
As a matter of fact, the workload being dumped on the employees is steadily increasing. Positions below the certification of Registered Nurses are slowly disappearing and those same responsibilities are now given to the registered nurses, In addition to the heavy amount of responsibility that registered nurses already have. We must remember that nurses are humans too and the amount of stress being placed on them increases fatigue, the chances of potential injury and job discontent. Burnout syndrome can be described as long term work stress resulting from the interaction between constant emotional pressure associated with immense interpersonal communication, and involvement along with personal characteristics. The Human Resource Management team has the ability to make the necessary changes to combat the nursing shortage.
Compassion Fatigue Compassion is the ability to feel sympathy of another being’s distress with the desire to alleviate (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2014). Compassion fatigue is a type of work burnout specific to caregivers, which is a multifaceted phenomenon that emanates from unresolved accumulated stress from ineffective coping of the caregiver’s needs built over time as well as one’s ineffective coping response to the patient’s distress (Bush, 2009). Due to the constant changing and increasing demands of healthcare, as well as the close nature of patient to caregiver relationship, nurses are at high risk for compassion fatigue. This essay will identify warning signs of compassion fatigue; explain the problems and their causes; explain the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the caregiver; lastly, identify coping strategies and useful resources for the caregiver. Warning Signs for Compassion Fatigue Compassion fatigue can exhibit a wide range of symptoms, affecting areas, such as cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social relations, physical manifestations, work performance, and one’s spirituality (Bush, 2009).
Nursing Leadership Style and Nurse Burnout Nursing Leadership Style and Nurse Burnout Nursing is a stressful and demanding profession. Nurses constantly faced with people’s problems, suffering and needs; puts the nursing profession at a high risk for burnout. Nursing leadership plays a significant role in how nurses feel about their work and handle patients (Kanste, 2008). Having worked on a cardiac telemetry unit, which was high stress with high patient turnover and dealing with a manger that was not approachable or visible, has made me realize that burnout was what I was experiencing. Leadership Style This article delves into the different types of leadership style such as transformational, transactional and laissez-faire and there effect on nurse burnout.
Combating Compassion Fatigue Grand Canyon University Foundations of Spirituality in Health Care HLT-310V Emory Davis September 13, 2013 Combating Compassion Fatigue Compassion Fatigue has been described as the “cost of caring” for others in emotional and physical pain. According to Figley, caregivers who have an inherent ability to care with compassion and express empathy are at the greatest risk for compassion fatigue when continuously faced with grief and loss. Compassion fatigue is a progressive and cumulative process that is influenced by three factors: interaction with patients, the nurse's use of their own resources, and exposure to stress (Coetzee, S. K., & Klopper, H. C. (2010). Compassion fatigue is divided into three stages. The first stage is compassion discomfort which can be reversed by rest and may include exhaustion, decreased enthusiasm, and weakening attention.
C. Difficult people are everywhere and dealing if them is an everyday life. d. Some are the patients in the waiting area; tired of waiting these can be difficult. e. Others can be the family, worried about their family members health which can be f. very stressful for them which can cause uncomfortable confrontation between them g. And other staff members. D. What can us as health care providers due to handle these difficult people and situations that can occur? h. We as providers can continuously educate and inform ourselves of new ideas.