Compassion fatigue and secondary traumatization: provider self care on intensive care units for children.

INTRODUCTION: Unexpressed grief in health care providers who care for chronically ill children may lead to the development of some symptoms of compassion fatigue. The purpose of this study was to describe the scope of compassion fatigue in health care providers working on critical care units with children. A secondary aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of providing educational seminars on compassion fatigue to health care providers working on critical care units with children.

METHOD: In this quantitative study, 185 providers employed within a Children's Hospital attended an educational seminar and voluntarily completed the questionnaires before and after the seminar. A modified version of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Index of Clinical Stress, and a compassion fatigue measure developed by the researchers were used in this study.

RESULTS: The researchers found that this educational seminar was successful in raising awareness on compassion fatigue and reducing clinical stress. In addition, the results suggested that providers who experienced higher levels of personal stressors also experienced higher levels of clinical stress and compassion fatigue.

DISCUSSION: Providers working on the intensive care units for children needed to be aware of compassion fatigue symptoms and techniques to manage or minimize their symptoms. Taking care of the providers on a personal and professional level had a significant impact on the amount of stress and compassion fatigue exhibited by health care professionals.