Speaker
E. Ayn Welleford
Session Details
Compassion Fatigue: The Warning Light on the Dashboard
Health Care & Home Care
Date: Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Time: 12:50 pm
Session Learning Objectives:
- Define Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue and how they show up in our lives.
- Explore multidimensional signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue, risk factors and common avenues for the development of compassion fatigue.
- Reframe risk and introduce tools to navigate compassion fatigue and support compassion satisfaction.
The impact of Compassion Fatigue on individuals and organizations is well documented. In addition to the physical and emotional symptoms experienced at the personal and relation levels, Compassion Fatigue has professional and organizational ramifications, ultimately impacting quality care, significantly impacting the delivery of Person- and Family-Centered Care. But what if we took a different approach? What if we reframed Compassion Fatigue as an indication from ourselves and to ourselves that we may be pivoting away from our central purpose and values? What if we viewed Compassion Fatigue as a call to reflect, reassess, and retool?
Compassion Fatigue has been called the cost of caring. While none of us is immune, some are particularly at risk. There are three proposed paths to Compassion Fatigue that may occur individually or simultaneously, these are Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Moral Distress (or Moral Injury). Getting clear on which path is leading toward Compassion Fatigue is essential to reassessing and retooling. To do this we must explore the multi-dimensional warning signs in ourselves, in others, and in our surroundings and learn to be poised to protect against the risk factors and develop tools for prevention. Reflecting on your own “Big Why” or sense of purpose can help maintain Compassion Satisfaction and guide a path toward harmonizing the joys and costs of caring. The individuals we serve rely on us as leaders and care providers to be our best and most compassionate selves in the delivery of Person- and Family Centered Care.
How do we improve the delivery of Person- and Family-Centered Care through maintaining our Compassion Satisfaction? The journey begins by creating a road map toward maintaining focus on one’s own sense of purpose, or Compassion Satisfaction. Compassion Satisfaction is the joy, sense of meaning and purpose derived from work or caring. It is often what brought us to this work in the first place. It is when we feel most connected with our unique life’s purpose and our place of greatest strength. Compassion Satisfaction serves as the antidote against Compassion Fatigue. This is the place we want to act from, and where we want to return to when we get off course. From this centering place we can begin to create a climate of compassion for ourselves and others by designing self-honoring practices that mirror the Person- and Family- Centered Care we offer to others.
“Rest and self care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” Eleanor Brown