In addition to combating alarm fatigue to prevent patient harm, hospitals also are finding ways to thwart compassion fatigue, which can lead to reduced patient safety, lower patient satisfaction and higher mortality rates, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Compassion fatigue--a mix of secondary traumatic stress and burnout--can make caregivers rude and cynical, impair the caregiver-patient relationship and lead providers to dread caring for certain patients, according to the article.
To prevent nurses from losing empathy, and subsequently delivering inferior care, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis created a training program to fight compassion fatigue. Participants engage in stress-reduction workshops, meditation, discussions about difficult patient situations and support groups.
"Being a caregiver is difficult and full of challenges, and that isn't going to change," Patricia Potter, a nurse researcher and director of research for patient-care services at Barnes-Jewish, told the WSJ. But she notes that nurses can learn to "self-regulate their stress and restore the energy they need to provide the best patient care."
Barnes-Jewish since has expanded the program to all hospital workers, helping physicians and housekeepers watch out for symptoms of compassion fatigue (such as frequent use of sick days, lack of joyfulness, headaches, sleep imbalance and mood swings) and identify solutions (such as establishing a support network), the article notes.
By training staff to prevent compassion fatigue, hospitals like Barnes-Jewish can keep their caregivers happy (and on staff) during a looming workforce shortage.
For more:
- read the Wall Street Journal article