I’ve been thinking a lot about essential workers, especially healthcare providers who have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis for a year. I can’t help but marvel at the amount of chronic stress, and even trauma, they must be going through. They're not only fighting for their patients’ lives, but also fighting against equipment shortage, staffing shortage, conspiracy theories, and new Covid strains. It’s no wonder that many are experiencing burnout.
What is compassion fatigue?
As a mental healthcare provider, I’m especially concerned about one specific type of burnout that happens to healthcare workers—compassion fatigue. This can happen when you have experienced so much empathy for and absorbed so much of others’ suffering that you yourself begin to have trauma reactions. Those reactions can include things like emotional numbing, physical illness, and feelings of hopelessness.
Ironically, one of the very traits that make a person good at being a nurse or therapist or just a good friend can become a liability.
Compassion fatigue was first described in emergency department nurses and oncology nurses. Nurses may constantly witness pain, decline, and death, often without being able to save patients no matter how much of themselves they put into their work. Compassion fatigue has also been documented in child protection workers and mental healthcare providers.
People who are highly empathic almost can’t help but feel others’ pain.
Compassion fatigue can even happen to people who don’t work in the helping professions. People who are highly empathic almost can’t help but feel others’ pain.
How can we protect ourselves from compassion fatigue while continuing to care for others? The answer is not to become emotionally numb to others’ suffering, but rather, to build good boundaries, take care of ourselves, and better understand our role.
How to protect yourself from compassion fatigue
1. Know the signs of compassion fatigue
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