Burnout Compassion Fatigue: Health Care, Law Enforcement, Other Service Professions (Video 4:20)

Compassion fatigue is a form of burnout experienced in many service professions such as health care and law enforcement. It results from empathizing too much with another person’s pain. Without realizing it, professional and personal relationships may become entwined. Compassion fatigue can cause painful physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion. Resentment may build toward the person receiving care. Substance abuse might be used as an escape from the exhaustion of caring too much.

Healthcare workers and others in service professions should monitor their behavior and feelings for signs of compassion fatigue. Treatment often includes counseling and the development of coping strategies.

This video titled Compassion Fatigue: The Stress of Caring Too Much describes compassion fatigue as explained by workers in the mental health, hospice, and law enforcement professions.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

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Hospice-Palliative Care Doctors and Burnout (Research, Video 5:48)

Every profession has the potential for burnout, even when workers love what they do. With the growth in hospice-palliative medicine (HPM), more research is shining a light on how doctors in this field prevent burnout and promote self-care among themselves.

This research by the Mayo Clinic was reported in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Participants included 40 HPM doctors practicing in America. These doctors were surveyed online about burnout prevention strategies and ways to find fulfillment in their professions. These were strategies used by 30 of 40 HPM physicians (19 males, 11 females) for burnout prevention:

1)    Physical well-being (60%)

2)    Professional relationships (57%)

3)    Transcendental perspectives (43%)

4)    Oral communication with others (43%)

5)    Hobbies (40%)

6)    Clinical variety (37%)

7)    Personal relationships (37%)

8)    Personal boundaries (37%)

9)    Time away from work (27%)

10)  Passion for one's work (20%)

11)  Realistic expectations (13%)

12)  Humor and laughter (13%)

13)  Memories of patients (10%)

HPM doctors use a variety of strategies to avoid burnout and maintain resilience. This research highlights the importance of dealing with burnout as it relates to doctors’ self-awareness and self-care. More research is needed to help physicians recognize burnout and individualized strategies for supporting themselves and their colleagues. This video titled “Palliative Curriculum - Part 15 - Cancer Doctors and Burnout” presents a scenario about burnout concerns.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many online and offline booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble online stores.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Impact of Hospice-Palliative Care Service on Volunteers (Sarah House Video 4:45 mins.)

People sometimes make untrue assumptions about hospice-palliative care volunteers. A common one is that we are all depressed saints. They probably say this because death in our society has so much sadness surrounding it. The truth is that most of us don’t find hospice volunteering depressing at all. I know it has made me a better person.

Recent research made me consider more specific ways that volunteering impacts lives of direct-patient care volunteers. Results were gathered through in-depth interviews. These are some of the findings:

1) Over half of the participants became volunteers because of previous death experiences with friends or family.

2) Most volunteers said they had been changed, that their outlook on life had changed, and that they learned the importance of living one day at a time.

3) Volunteers found ways to prevent compassion fatigue or burnout.

4) Volunteers said they would encourage others to volunteer.

5) Many volunteers offered suggestions for changing their programs.

Only 23 volunteers were interviewed for this study. I would have preferred that there were more. However, I think these five general findings can still be applied to a broad section of volunteers. Differences in demographics, culture, personalities, etc. would be more evident during discussions of specifics, particularly regarding numbers 3 and 5. Discussion among volunteers and their managers about these kinds of issues and more provide the open communication that enriches the workplace culture.

You can read more here about this study reported in the “American Journal of Hospice Palliative Care.”

This video features Sarah House, a "social model" hospice dedicated to end-of-life care for homeless and low-income residents, including those with AIDS who may or may not be near death. Sarah House is located in Santa Barbara, California.

Frances Shani Parker, Author
"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes”
Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog