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Running on Empty: Understanding Compassion Fatigue
Article Submitted by:
Françoise Mathieu, M.Ed., CCC. Compassion Fatigue Specialist
This is an excerpt of an article which was originally published in Rehab & Community Care Medicine, Spring 2007 and is reprinted with permission.
To view the article in its entirety, go to www.compassionfatigue.ca and click on Resources and links.
For comprehensive coverage of this topic, we recommend The Compassion Fatigue Workbook which can be obtained by visiting www.cfsolutionsbookstore.com
“The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet” (Remen, 1996)
What is compassion fatigue?
Our primary task as helping professionals is first and foremost to meet the physical and/or emotional needs of our clients and patients. This can be an immensely rewarding experience, and the daily contact with patients is what keeps many of us working in this field. It is a Calling, a highly specialized type of work that is unlike any other profession. However, this highly specialised rewarding profession can also look like this: Increasingly stressful work environments, heavy case loads and dwindling resources, cynicism and negativity from co-workers, low job satisfaction and, for some, the risk of being physically assaulted by patients.
Compassion Fatigue has been described as the “cost of caring" for others in emotional and physical pain. (Figley, 1982) It is characterized by deep physical and emotional exhaustion and a pronounced change in the helper’s ability to feel empathy for their patients, their loved ones and their co-workers. It is marked by increased cynicism at work, a loss of enjoyment of our career, and eventually can transform into depression, secondary traumatic stress and stress-related illnesses. The most insidious aspect of compassion fatigue is that it attacks the very core of what brought us into this work: our empathy and compassion for others.
Who does it affect?
Compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard, which means that almost everyone who cares about their patients/clients will eventually develop a certain amount of it, to varying degrees of severity. Statistics Canada recently published their first ever National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses (2005) which found that “close to one-fifth of nurses reported that their mental health had made their workload difficult to handle during the previous month.” In the year before the survey, over 50% of nurses had taken time off work because of a physical illness, and 10% had been away for mental health reasons. Eight out of ten nurses accessed their EAP (employee assistance program) which is over twice as high as EAP use by the total employed population. In addition, nurses reported on the job violence and were found “more likely to experience on the job violence than all other professions.” (ONA, 2006) A study of Cancer Care Workers in Ontario carried out in 2000 also found high levels of burnout and stress among oncology workers and discovered that a significant number of them were considering leaving the field: 50% of physicians and 1/3 of other cancer care professionals had high levels of emotional exhaustion and low levels of personal accomplishment. (Grunfeld 2000) Similar findings have been found among other helping professionals such as child protection workers, law enforcement, counselors and prison guards. (Figley, 2006)
Signs and Symptoms of Compassion Fatigue
Each individual will have their own warning signs that indicate that they are moving into the danger zone of compassion fatigue. These will include some of the following:
Exhaustion
Reduced ability to feel sympathy and empathy
Anger and irritability
Increased use of alcohol and drugs
Dread of working with certain clients/patients
Diminished sense of enjoyment of career
Disruption to world view, Heightened anxiety or irrational fears
Intrusive imagery or dissociation
Hypersensitivity or Insensitivity to emotional material
Difficulty separating work life from personal life
Absenteeism – missing work, taking many sick days
Impaired ability to make decisions and care for clients/patients
Problems with intimacy and in personal relationships
Drs Figley and Stamm have developed a Compassion Fatigue self-test called the ProQuol that can be taken online to assess one’s own level of CF. It is considered the most effective screening tool to date: www.isu.edu/~bhstamm/tests.htm. You can also access a very easy self-scoring excel version of it by emailing me at: thingy@aweber.com. I affectionately renamed the ProQuol “thingy” as I found the original name rather unwieldy.
For more....visit www.compassionfatigue.ca and click on Resources. The full article is available free of charge and is entitled "Running on Empty"
The Author
Françoise Mathieu is a Certified Mental Health Counsellor and Compassion Fatigue Specialist. She works individually with clients in private practice and offers workshops and consultation to agencies on topics related to compassion fatigue, wellness and self care. She is the author of The Compassion Fatigue Workbook, which was published in 2009 and can be ordered by going to www.cfsolutionsbookstore.com
Contact information:
Françoise: whp@cogeco.ca
www.compasionfatigue.ca
© Workshops for the Helping Professions, 2007
