Personal Effects Of Compassion Fatigue On Patient Care

Aside from the obvious detriment that compassion fatigue puts on patient care, the condition affects the provider outside of the clinical setting as well. With the continual absorption and internalization of the patient’s emotions, compassion fatigue has a pronounced personal effect. Compassion fatigue can cause desensitivity, isolation, and substance abuse, which can result in an “inability to empathize with coworkers and even family members” (OverExposed: The Cost of Compassion). Imagine being a surgeon treating a child with a severed finger, then after a long day of working you come back home to your child crying over a scraped knee. Most likely the response to your child’s scraped knee would be less empathic when compared to another parent,