Occupational hazards: compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout.

A : When I started working in health care, practitioner well-being was not something that received much attention, and I knew little about it. After several years as a crisis counsellor, working with clients in high-trauma situations, I found that my relationship to my work was changing: I was feeling less empathy, more irritation toward my colleagues and constant anger about budget cuts and insuffi cient resources. I was often tired and impatient at home. These subtle and gradual changes did not fi t with my sense of who I was as a person. I knew I loved my work, so I had to learn to sustain myself to get back to being the helping professional I wanted to be. I started reading and talking to others about burnout and other forms of work-related exhaustion, and discovered that it was a growing problem in our fi eld. Since becoming a compassion fatigue educator, I have spoken with helping professionals of all stripes: nurses, physicians, social workers, police offi cers. What I am seeing is a system that is increasingly frayed: higher workloads, rising rates of sick leave, diminishing resources. It’s no wonder many health-care workers are feeling overwhelmed. Compassion fatigue refers to the profound emotional and physical exhaustion that health-care workers can develop over the course of their career when they are unable to refuel and regenerate. They may notice a change in their ability to tolerate strong Q. I am feeling a lot of stress at work right now, and I’m bringing it home with me. I want to understand what I’m experiencing. What are the eff ects of compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and burnout?