Preventing Compassion Fatigue and Burnout
Presented by: Dr Jenn Hannigan MD CCFP(PM)
The practice of medicine is:
an art, not a trade;
a calling not a business;
a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.
-Sir William Osler
Compassion Fatigue:
- “the cost of caring”
- Secondary or vicarious traumatization
- Symptoms parallel to PTSD
- Hyperarousal (poor sleep, irritability)
- Avoidance (“not wanting to go there”)
- Re-experiencing (intrusive thoughts/dreams when triggered)
Burnout:
- Emotional exhaustion
- Reduced personal accomplishment and commitment to the profession
- Depersonalization
- A negative attitude towards patients
- Personal detachment
- Loss of ideals
How can we mitigate burnout:
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Reflective Writing
- Adequate supervision and mentoring
- Sustainable workload
- Promotion of feelings of choice and control
- Appropriate recognition and reward
- Supportive work community
- Promotion of fairness and justice in the workplace
Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
-Viktor Frankl
Getting Started with Meditation:
- Center for Mindfulness http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/
- Full Catastrophe Living – Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD
- Guided meditations on CD
- The Iris Center in Fredericton
- Silent Retreat
- Mindfulness Mondays (SJRH)
