Nursing requires a great deal of compassion and empathy to support people who are suffering, and while it can be extremely rewarding, it can also be a very emotionally demanding role. A common sign of compassion fatigue is a drastic withdrawal from social connections, which can be obvious in abandoned friendships or relationships. If you are experiencing this in your personal or professional life while working in Home Care in River Grove IL, it may be a result of providing care for people who experience significant trauma, suffering, or distress. Long-term exposure to traumatic stories and events can ultimately lead to emotional exhaustion, especially in stressful work environments with a lot of stress or inadequate support. Personal attributes place a person at greater risk of developing compassion fatigue.
People who are overly conscientious or tend to be perfectionists are more likely to suffer compassion fatigue. People with low levels of social support or high levels of stress in their personal lives are also more likely to develop compassion fatigue. In addition, any type of previous trauma that has led them to develop negative coping skills, such as suppressing or avoiding emotions, or even having those small support systems, increases the risk of developing compassion fatigue. There are also unrealistic perfectionist expectations, which I think many of us are probably guilty of in the therapy world.
I keep a diary in which I write down the things for which I am grateful and the things that are going well for me in life. Intentionally recognizing the good things in life can help change your experience from a negative and stressful experience to a more positive and hopeful one. Non-professionals, such as family members and informal caregivers of people with chronic illnesses, are also experiencing unprecedented numbers of compassion fatigue. For example, working in a community or center with a culture of silence in which stressful events, such as deaths in the unit, are not discussed after events, is related to compassion fatigue.
We must know the symptoms of compassion fatigue and intervention strategies to develop a personal care plan that allows us to achieve a healthy balance between work life and personal. Anyone can experience compassion fatigue, but therapists, healthcare providers and first responders are at greater risk. Compassion fatigue can affect your ability to do your job or complete daily activities, at least temporarily. When I talk to caregivers in general, they often tell me that they didn't realize that stress is normal, so they hesitate to ask for help.
The ARP also advocates the promotion of self-compassion to encourage people to challenge negative self-talk and to focus on changing their automatic thoughts and beliefs to reflect a more positive attitude. Therefore, interventions that promote individual resilience and educate at-risk workers about effective coping strategies in response to these adverse occupational exposures are equally important and are likely to have significant economic and health benefits, since they reduce not only STS, BO and cystic fibrosis, but also the risk of more serious mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression, whose consequences on quality of life and productivity are well documented. For example, after playing tennis or swimming in the pool, you'll often find that you've forgotten the irritation of the day.
