Mentor/s
Sandra Young and Brian Stiltner
Participation Type
Paper Talk
Abstract
What started as the reason nurses chose the field has now become the reason many nurses are choosing to leave. Empathy and compassion are two qualities that make nurses so special, but when nurses begin to take on the emotional stress of their patients’ pain and illnesses, they can grow burnt out and fatigued. Compassion fatigue is defined as, “apathy or indifference towards the suffering of others” (Oxford University Press, 2021). As a protective mechanism, nurses can begin to become apathetic to suffering when they are constantly seeing people go through emotional and physical pain. While nurses are protecting themselves, their patients are not receiving the level of care they deserve. Empathy is one of the most important qualities in a nurse, but when nurses give too much of themselves to their patients, they become unable to give themselves at all. The level of care for patients is an issue when nurses are unable to respond to their patients emotionally. As a nurse, creating emotional boundaries will allow for protection of the nurse's well-being as well as better care for their patients.
College and Major available
Nursing BSN
Location
Session 12: Digital Commons & Martire 3rd Floor Boardroom
Start Day/Time
4-27-2023 2:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-27-2023 3:15 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Compassion Fatigue in Nursing
Session 12: Digital Commons & Martire 3rd Floor Boardroom
What started as the reason nurses chose the field has now become the reason many nurses are choosing to leave. Empathy and compassion are two qualities that make nurses so special, but when nurses begin to take on the emotional stress of their patients’ pain and illnesses, they can grow burnt out and fatigued. Compassion fatigue is defined as, “apathy or indifference towards the suffering of others” (Oxford University Press, 2021). As a protective mechanism, nurses can begin to become apathetic to suffering when they are constantly seeing people go through emotional and physical pain. While nurses are protecting themselves, their patients are not receiving the level of care they deserve. Empathy is one of the most important qualities in a nurse, but when nurses give too much of themselves to their patients, they become unable to give themselves at all. The level of care for patients is an issue when nurses are unable to respond to their patients emotionally. As a nurse, creating emotional boundaries will allow for protection of the nurse's well-being as well as better care for their patients.
Students' Information
Madeline Bragaw
Nursing Major
Honors Student
2023
Honorable Mention, Dean's Prize: Davis & Henley College of Nursing 2023 Award