How to Cope with Compassion Fatigue

Working as a Pediatric Home Care Nurse can have its challenges. One of these major challenges is compassion fatigue, which can happen at any moment in your career. However, there are many ways to prevent compassion fatigue from affecting your work and personal life. 

What is Compassion Fatigue?

Compassion fatigue describes the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of helping others through experiences of stress or trauma. It is common for medical professionals to be at a higher risk for compassion fatigue as they can feel affected by the experiences and stories of their patients. 

The following signs of compassion fatigue include: 

• Mood swings
• Detachment (withdrawal from social connections)
• Addiction 
• Anxiety or depression 
• Issues with productiveness
• Physical symptoms like exhaustion, fatigue, changes in appetite, digestive issues, and headaches 

Practice Self-Care

Self-care is the practice where individuals are looking after their health in an empowering way. This practice includes making healthy lifestyle choices, avoiding unhealthy lifestyle habits, self-monitoring, and self-management. As a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, it’s important to implement self-care habits into your day-to-day life so you do not run into burnout and compassion fatigue. 

When you think of self-care, it’s important to ask yourself the following question: What makes me feel my best? 

Here are just some self-care practices you can try:

• Start a fitness routine with friends or colleagues
• Watch your favorite comfort movie
• Try therapy 
• Go outside in nature
• Get a lot of sleep
• Do a digital detox
• Read a book

Self-care can be anything that makes you feel like you.

Create a Schedule that Works for You 

As a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, you could be meeting a patient with different needs and expectations; each patient comes with new medical and mental challenges. It’s important to create a schedule that works for you so that you have enough time in the day to eat, relax, and practice other self-care routines. At Thrive SPC, we offer a flexible work schedule so you can have a great work/life balance. 

Set Boundaries

While you play a critical role in a patient’s life as a pediatric nurse, you have your own needs. Although you want to keep a trusting and respectful relationship with your patients, you should also facilitate a healthy boundary to protect your privacy and peace of mind. 

Here are some tips on how to set boundaries with patients, their families, and co-workers.

• Learn when to say no
• Stand up for yourself
• Understand your priorities
• Don’t be afraid to take up space

Seek Help from a Support System

During your time as a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, there will be good days and bad days. Every individual deserves to have a support system where they can share their feelings. Reach out to friends and family when you need advice, or just someone to talk to. If you don’t have friends or family close by, look for peer support groups for nurses so you can meet with individuals who have similar experiences to you. At Thrive SPC, we offer many resources to support our teammates.