Compassion Fatigue Among Palliative Care Clinicians: Findings on Personality Factors and Years of Service

O’Mahony, Sean; Ziadni, Maisa S.; Hoerger, Michael; Levine, Stacie; Baron, Aliza; Gerhart, James

doi:10.1177/1049909117701695

Cited by 47 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…It is understandable therefore that nurses may detach from their patients and adopt a more ‘technical’ approach to care, in order to protect themselves from emotional attachments that will be disrupted when the patient becomes less well and consequently dies. However, while this may be effective as a coping strategy, nurses who empathise less with patients are less likely to develop a sense of meaning or purpose in their work,49 which, according to our findings, is key to maintaining and enhancing resilience.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

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Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing: a qualitative systematic review

Powell

Froggatt

Giga

2019

BMJ Support Palliat Care

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BackgroundNurses in inpatient palliative care are frequently exposed to death and dying in addition to common stressors found in other nursing practice. Resilience may mitigate against stress but remains ill-defined and under-researched in the specialist palliative care setting.ObjectiveThe aim of this systematic review was to understand resilience from the perspectives of inpatient palliative care nurses.DesignA thematic synthesis of qualitative studies was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.Data sourcesAcademic Search Ultimate, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline Complete, PsycINFO and Scopus.Review methodsThe review stages were searching for relevant literature, selecting relevant papers, data extraction, critical appraisal and thematic synthesis.ResultsEight studies revealed 10 subthemes, 3 descriptive themes and 1 analytical theme: resilience occurs when nurses incorporate stressful aspects of their personal or professional lives into a coherent narrative that enhances their ability to cope with the demands of their role.ConclusionPalliative care nursing is more stressful if patients or situations remind nurses of personal experiences. Nurses cope better with adequate support; however, coping does not necessarily imply increased resilience. Resilience occurs when nurses cognitively process their experiences, articulate their thoughts and feelings into a coherent narrative, and construct a sense of meaning or purpose. Future research could explore how nurses understand resilience and how it could be enhanced in the palliative care inpatient setting. With resilience, nurses may remain in the profession longer and improve the quality of care when they do.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

“…O’Mahony et al 49 describe how the effects of repeated exposure to loss and suffering in palliative care clinicians may be cumulative, leading to clinically significant levels of distress. Furthermore, they found that nurses who are overly empathic have higher prevalence of secondary traumatic stress and compassion fatigue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing: a qualitative systematic review

Powell

Froggatt

Giga

2019

BMJ Support Palliat Care

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“…In industrial workers it has been shown that the effects of insomnia on accident risk can be increased by occupational fatigue [ 38 ]. Sustained occupational effort, prolonged hours of work and night shifts, irregular life habit, and exposure to traumatic events, that are very common in commercial drivers, have been associated with sleep disorders in other high-risk occupations such as prison personnel [ 39 ] and health care workers [ 40 – 42 ]. In all these occupational examples, researchers observed significant individual vulnerability to performance impairment caused by loss of sleep.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insomnia is associated with road accidents. Further evidence from a study on truck drivers.

et al. 2017

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BackgroundSleep-related problems are known risk factors for road accidents. However, very few studies have investigated the role played by insomnia and its components, and no data are available for a population of occupational drivers at risk, such as the truck driver category.ObjectiveTo measure the prevalence and impact of insomnia on motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and near-miss accidents (NMAs) in 949 truck drivers.DesignCross-sectional survey.ResultsInsomnia affected 27.5% of the sample. Compared to other drivers, in the 3 years prior to the study, truck drivers with insomnia had reported a significantly higher number of MVAs; they had also reported a greater number of NMAs in the previous 6 months. After correction for the presence of obstructive sleep apnea, excessive daytime sleepiness, short sleep duration, and other concurrent diseases, insomniac truck drivers had an almost two-fold risk of driving accidents (OR: 1.82, CI 95%:1.33–2.49) and a more than three-fold increased risk of near-miss accidents (OR: 3.35, CI95%:2.06–5.45) compared to non-insomniac drivers.ConclusionInsomnia emerged as an independent risk factor for MVAs and NMAs. We strongly advise screening commercial drivers for signs and symptoms of insomnia in order to improve health and safety on the road.

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“…Many of the clinicians in our study described themselves as resilient and were able to overcome burnout with their own coping strategies. Similarly, O'Mahony et al 22 shared that those who had more years of service in palliative care were less burnt out and experienced better job satisfaction. This may be due to survival bias where those who experienced burnout or felt that this work was not suitable for them opted to leave the field.…”

Section: Main Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Burnout and Resilience After a Decade in Palliative Care: What Survivors Have to Teach Us. A Qualitative Study of Palliative Care Clinicians With More Than 10 Years of Experience

Koh

Hum²,

Khoo³

et al. 2020

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management

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Compassion Fatigue Among Palliative Care Clinicians: Findings on Personality Factors and Years of Service

Abstract: Personality traits of neuroticism and agreeableness may convey risk and resilience, respectively, for palliative care professionals. More research is needed to determine if assessing personality traits can help identify providers at risk for adverse reactions to patient trauma.

Cited by 47 publications

References 27 publications

Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing: a qualitative systematic review

Resilience in inpatient palliative care nursing: a qualitative systematic review

Insomnia is associated with road accidents. Further evidence from a study on truck drivers.

Burnout and Resilience After a Decade in Palliative Care: What Survivors Have to Teach Us. A Qualitative Study of Palliative Care Clinicians With More Than 10 Years of Experience

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