When Caring Becomes Costly: managing compassion fatigue
As a nurse, you have undoubtedly experienced compassion fatigue at some point in your career (let’s be real, probably over and over again). Compassion fatigue occurs when a nurse is repeatedly exposed to patients who are undergoing some type of distress, trauma, or suffering. Unchecked compassion fatigue can lead to the development of physical and mental symptoms, including, but not limited to: feeling numb or detached, fatigue, trouble sleeping, anger, withdrawal from friends and family, gastrointestinal discomfort, impaired immune functioning, anxiety, and depression.
So how do you protect yourself from something when nursing, by nature, is a job of caring for people who are experiencing difficult situations, trauma, and suffering? This answer will look different for every person, but here are 5 things you can do to be mindful of compassion fatigue and decrease the ramifications of it.
1) Set and maintain boundaries. Setting boundaries in nursing is so important for many reasons, one of them being reducing compassion fatigue. What might this look like? Let’s say you work at a memory care facility. You'‘ve been caring for Mr. Jones for several months and have gotten close to his family. His health has been declining more rapidly over the past few weeks and his daughter, who lives far away, calls the facility often to check-in. Sometimes you find yourself on the phone a lot longer than you’re able to, trying to provide some active listening and support to her when she calls for updates. You’re beginning to dread these calls as they feel like mini therapy sessions. You may decide next time to let his daughter know that although you’re happy to speak to her, you need to set a maximum phone call time of 5 minutes to answer questions and provide any updates in order to provide the best care to all of your patients.
2) Use your time off. If you have a bank of PTO or sick time and need a day (or days) to recharge, use your time. I’ll say it louder for the folks in the back: USE. YOUR. TIME. Whether it be an actual vacation or a single mental health day to decompress after a tough shift, if you’re body is telling you it needs a break, you need to listen. There are no gold trophies given out to nurses who never use their PTO or sick time… just pitiful pizza parties. Oh, and it’s cold.
3) Practice saying “no.” Speaking of boundaries… Can you pick up an extra shift this week? No? What about just a few hours on Saturday? It’s totally okay if you miss the first half of your son’s game! If you’re not a direct “no” kinda person, say something firm instead like “I’m not able to make that work.”
4) Find a hobby or engage in one you already have. Sometimes you just have to give your brain something else to think about that is both engaging and fulfilling. Compassion fatigue can make you feel so detached from yourself and others, and engaging in a hobby you genuinely enjoy can connect you back to yourself, even if just for a little bit. Although nursing is meaningful, having meaning outside of work is very important.
5) Repeat after me: Nursing is a team sport. You are not responsible for saving a patient all by yourself. You are not responsible for preventing bad outcomes in your patient all by yourself. Nursing is a team sport and although you may play a very large role on that team, you cannot and should not do everything. Do what you do and do it well, but don’t take on the full ownership of your patient’s entire hospital stay. This applies to inpatient, outpatient, community nursing, OR, home health… you name it.
Having good boundaries, taking time for yourself to rest and recharge, learning how to say “no,” having meaning outside of your career and not taking on more than you are responsible for are just some of the ways you can decrease the risk of experiencing compassion fatigue. Continuously checking in with yourself to identify and manage symptoms of compassion fatigue is very important to prevent career burnout and significant health concerns.
