How often do you find yourself on the edge of compassion fatigue (with your family, your friends, your coworkers, your patients, your clients)? Do you think they can read it in your face?
Compassion fatigue refers to a reaction of strong sympathy and grief for another person who is suffering, accompanied by a deep admiration to eliminate the suffering (Todaro-Franceschi, 2013). As a professional working in a high pressure area of providing critical care, I find myself suffering from compassion fatigue very rottenly. This happens when I directly interact with the patients and seek to provide solutions to the situations affecting their lives.
I think it is easy for my clients to read that I am suffering from compassion fatigue directly from my face. This is because I usually feel de-motivated during such times and this greatly affects my communication. It happens that I am never in a mood to communicate when affected, owing to the sympathy I feel. Consequently, it is very easy for another party to learn that the situation is affecting me from how I communicate with them.
As a professional, it has come to my realization that it is very essential to control compassion fatigue in order to continue working effectively. Consequently, compassion fatigue can be overcome by coming up with a self care strategy which works in dissimilar ways (Figley, 1995). Initially, compassion fatigue can be minimized through a re-balancing of an individual’s workload. One can resort to taking short breaks composed of different activities in between the day’s work. Additionally, this kind of fatigue can be overcome by setting limits where an individual should be more receptive to activities which are fun rather than awful ones. Lastly, exercises like yoga can be much helpful in dealing with compassion fatigue. Consequently, one can be able to reduce emotional stress by participating in these activities.
References
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in
those who treat the traumatized. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Todaro-Franceschi, V. (2013). Compassion fatigue and burnout in nursing: Enhancing
professional quality of life. New York: Springer Pub.
