The Corporatization of America's Healthcare System: Implications for Compassion Fatigue among Nurses

iii DEDICATION For more than a decade now, I have been nursing the afflicted, advocating for the afflicted, serving the afflicted, and on many occasions witnessing the loss that often times accompanies the afflicted! Loss is a hard but rightfully normal part of life on this side of heaven. I do not know if it is the loss itself, or the immediate stages after the loss that are hardest… But I agree with Simone Weil when she stated in her book Gravity and Grace that " Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude. " I am still not able to fully articulate how the deeply painful loss of my mother has in turn become the very catalyst that has given my life so much sagacity and wholeheartedness. Romans 8:28 instructs that " We are assured and know that all things work together and are for good to and for those who love God and are called according to His design and purpose. " Suffering loss allows or maybe forces one to gain a deeper revelation of what it means to have all things work together! Either way, I am assured of these things and through this grace-filled revelation brokenness and gratitude have kissed and a window in my life has opened. Grace and Mercy have entered and Gratitude stands tall! I do not know if it is the wow factor of envisioning my mother in heaven as she communes with Christ or the window in my life that has opened in her absence. But I do know that, everywhere and in every way, I acknowledge these things with profound gratitude. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis was possible thanks to the love and support of many people, as well as the mentorship and guidance of many others. I deeply appreciate the contribution that each one of you had in reaching this final step and in making the whole experience throughout my master's journey a joyful one. To Dr. Vern Baxter, thank you for believing in my capability to accomplish this, for supporting my idea, and for making this experience significant. To Dr. Pamela Jenkins, thank you for teaching me what it means to be a research methodologist, and for answering all of my questions with such generosity. To Dr. Charles Figley, thank you for your dedication to the field of traumatalogy. …