The meaning of fatigue compassion in the context of healthcare

Abstract

Introduction

Studies confirm that caregivers play host to a high level of compassion fatigue. Day in, day out, nurses struggle to function in care giving environments that constantly present heart wrenching, emotional challenges.

Aim

This concept analysis will aim to capture the current meaning of fatigue compassion in the context of healthcare and explore how it may be recognised and measured in education and clinical practice.

Methods

Using the same search terms, findings from a literature search in 2000 and from a follow-up search in 2014 were used to conduct the concept analysis. The Walker and Avant theorethical framework was used to develop a model case of fatigue compassion in nursing care. The attributes, antecedents, consequences and references were delineated.

Results

Four attributes of fatigue compassion were delineated. (1) Perceptual incongruence and appraising defines how an individual perceives role demand in relation to capabilities or resources. (2) Multidimensionality consists of physiological and psychological effects on a person. (3) Interactional feedback is the experienced acknowledgement/validation communicated by others during compassive stressful situations at a workplace. (4) Response pattern describes the coping mechanisms used by an individual experiencing fatigue compassion.

Conclusions

The concept analysis of fatigue compassion among nurses at the workplace recognized the vulnerability of the nursing discipline towards distress in general. There needs to be greater research within the field of role stress and nursing, specifically in the development of scales or tools to assist in the identification of fatigue compassion amongst nurses.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.