Nursing 'Combating Compassion Fatigue ' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nursing 'Combating Compassion Fatigue ' - Essay Example There are five concepts of compassion fatigue that include emotional, somatic, cognitive, behavioral and spiritual concepts. All these concepts have certain warning signs to show that one is in the brink of experiencing compassion fatigue. With respect to the cognitive concept, warning signs include decrease in self-esteem, poor judgment, short attention span, disordered thinking, forgetfulness and disinterest in introspection. Generally, this means that the mental ability of a caregiver to perform their duties decreases. One’s colleagues will notice a reduced work rate and a form of laziness or disinterest in normal activities and a lot of negativity around the working environment. With respect to emotional concept, the warning signs could include distancing oneself from others, expressing anger to work situations, becoming apathetic, having a desire to leave nursing, going into depression and experiencing irritability. Here, a nurse feels that the normal responsibilities hav e become a burden and does not need such issues. In terms of the behavioral concept, the warning signs could include unresponsiveness, indifference, callousness, isolation and avoidance of emotionally charged situations. A nurse experiences a change in behavior in response to normal events or situations at the work place and acts like he or she is not in the right work environment even if they have worked there for years (Bush, 2009). With respect to the somatic concept, an individual will experience warning signs such as headaches, exhaustion, becoming accident-prone, becoming susceptible to infection and having difficulty in sleeping. Individuals feel physically exhausted and drained to the extent that they feel pain such as headaches, sweating, rapid heartbeat and dizziness among others. They may not respond normally to their normal duties because of the above symptoms. In respect to spiritual concepts, an individual will feel laziness to