'Medelyemoegheid' – die hantering van sekondêre traumatiese stres

Abstract

<strong>'Compassion fatigue' – coping with secondary traumatic stress</strong><br /><br /> There is a cost to caring. Professionals who listen to clients’ stories of fear, pain and suffering may feel similar fear, pain and suffering because they care. Simply the knowledge that a loved one has been exposed to a traumatic event can be traumatising – in this respect trauma can sometimes be contagious. The consequence of this process is that trauma therapy profoundly changes the therapist. These changes are both inspiring and disturbing, involving gains and losses. Traumatology literature usually excludes those who have been traumatised indirectly; thus this aspect is specifically explored in this article. Terminology like compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, countertransference, and vicarious traumatisation, are explored. The importance of compassion satisfaction, a team approach and supervision is also highlighted. A list of typical characteristics of compassion fatigue is provided, as well as practical guidelines for dealing with and preventing this problem. Certain pastoral-theological perspectives concerning this theme are also discussed

Compassion fatigue within nursing practice: A concept analysis

“…The fact that only dictionary definitions were included in the concept analysis process, while all the other literature sources were used only to confirm the findings of the study, might be seen as a limitation of the study. The rationale for this was that compassion fatigue was most frequently defined by using the definitions of secondary traumatic stress (Sexton, 1999; Baird & Jenkins, 2003; Huggard, 2003; Coetzer, 2004; Maytum et al ., 2004; Kraus, 2005; Abendroth & Flannery, 2006; Adams et al ., 2006; Conrad & Kellar‐Guenther, 2006; Sabo, 2006; Van den Berg et al ., 2006; White, 2006), which is not even synonymous with compassion fatigue, followed by the definition of STSD (Pfifferling & Gilley, 2000; Baranowsky, 2002; Valent, 2002; Becvar, 2003; Inbar & Ganor, 2003; Salston & Figley, 2003; Costa, 2005; Nene N, 2005, unpubl. data; Mendenhall, 2006; Benoit et al ., 2007), which differs significantly from compassion fatigue.…”