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Compassion Fatigue In Nursing Essay

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Compassion Fatigue In Nursing Essay
Many nurses enter the field of health care with the intent of helping others. They thrive on providing compassion, empathy, and relationship based patient care. The cost of humans helping humans especially in a time of need is compassion fatigue, burnout or a combination of the two. Of the 3.1 million registered nurses in the United States, most will experience compassion fatigue or burnout at one point or another throughout their career. (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011).
Compassion fatigue is defined as an extreme “fatigue that results from caring for those who are suffering, or facing a traumatic situation. Burnout is defined as a cumulative process marked by emotional exhaustion and withdrawal associated with increased workload, and stress.” (Sweet et al., 2014, p. 4) Signs and …show more content…
When nurses also have ailing family at home that they care for, the risks of compassion fatigue and burnout are increased. This is termed double-duty nursing and can cause much distress for nurses as they are continually juggling time and may become fatigued more quickly. Sweets et. al. (2014) states that there are "nearly 50 million Americans who are currently caring for an older adult, whether family or friend." This has been termed the “sandwich generation” as this is the generation that support both emotionally and financially for their children and at least one parent. (Sweet et al., 2014, p. 2).
There are many programs that can assist with combating compassion fatigue and burnout. Nurses can seek help from “a mentor, consultant, supervisor, professional counselor, or an employee assistance program.” (Lombardo & Eyre, 2011, p. 3). “We can all reduce our risk of compassion fatigue and emotional saturation by reflecting on our triggers, practicing mindfulness, replacing self-criticism with kind self-talk, and engaging in daily self-care activities.” (Sheppard, 2016, p.
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