Understanding Compassion Fatigue in Health Care

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Compassion fatigue is one of the biggest causes of burnout for individuals in the helping and healing professions. Those at risk can learn to identify the causes and symptoms, and develop a set of tools to avoid burnout.

What is Compassion Fatigue?

“Compassion Fatigue” is a state that is sometimes experienced by those helping people in distress. Working in health care can often be stressful. Health care providers and other healthcare workers see and hear things on a regular basis that can contribute to them feeling overwhelmed and overworked. As a result, they can experience Compassion Fatigue, which can make it difficult for them to continue doing the work they do, and can lead to burnout. This can have consequences for them professionally and personally, causing decreased quality of life and decreased job satisfaction. It can also impact those around them, including their family and loved ones.

Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms

By recognizing the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue, and knowing what tools are available to help address it, health care workers can be proactive in addressing the impact it may have on them, and ensure that they are taking care of themselves so that they can continue to provide high quality care to their patients.

Webinar: Compassion Fatigue

The Nuka webinar series continues with “Compassion Fatigue.”

This webinar will cover how to recognize the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout. It will also offer a set of tools to help people prevent compassion fatigue from setting in, and/or help those who may already be suffering from it recover. The tools are based on the core principles of SCF’s Nuka System of Care, but can be applied by health care professionals anywhere, regardless of their position or the organization they work for.

Watch the free on-demand webinar today. All webinars are available here on a variety of topics including integrated care teams, behavioral health integration, driving improvement through the voice of the customer, and more.