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December 03-04, 2018 | Lisbon, Portugal
Public Health, Women's Health, Nursing and Hospital Management
Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education | ISSN : 2161-0711 | Volume 08
Joint Event
Michelle Black, J Community Med Health Educ 2018, Volume:8
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0711-C7-049
Combatting compassion fatigue: The care professional’s resilience
program
A
rticulated as the cost of caring for clients that have experienced trauma (Figley,
1995), the phenomenon of compassion fatigue (CF) also known as secondary
traumatic stress (STS), is presented from a study of empirical research relating to CF
among care professionals. The research uncovered, the symptoms, prevalence, risk
factors and best practice interventions identified to alleviate individual experiences
and symptoms of CF. Populations explored include; nursing, counselling, social work,
hospice care, residential care, mental health and military health care professionals.
The research informed the development of an evidence based program, combatting
compassion fatigue; the care professional’s resilience program. The program
incorporates a combination of best practice interventions to educate, develop self-
care, and develop emotional intelligence and problem solving capability to foster
resilience, reduce the risk and alleviate experiences of CF. An independent pilot study
of the program facilitated using the Eagala Model, occurred with a purposeful sample
of 10 community care professionals (CCPs) working in residential care facilities in
northern new south wales who self-nominated to participate in the program. Pre
and post assessment occurred using the professional quality of life (ProQOL) scale
(Stamm, 2010), as a screening tool and the Genos emotional intelligence self-test
(Genos, 2015) to understand emotional intelligence factors. An analysis of the variance
between the pre and post tests revealed ProQOL scores for compassion fatigue and
burnout decreased whilst compassion satisfaction scores increased. The Genos
emotional intelligence analysis found a statistically significant improvement in overall
emotional intelligence (p>0.05) and statistically significant improvements (p>0.05) in
the emotional intelligence factors of emotion self-management, emotional expression,
emotion self-control and emotion awareness of others. Understanding the increasing
demands, high staff turnover and limited capacity to release care professionals from
their workplace, further research has commenced to undertake a clinical trial of the
Combatting Compassion Fatigue. Care professionals resilience program facilitated in
a blended learning mode using workshops, online learning and support resources to
optimize access and engagement in the program for nursing healthcare professionals
in highly demanding, high stress and high stakes environments.
Biography
Michelle Black is a Consultant, Educator and EAP Practitioner. She is an Advocate for leveraging the evidence
to solve industry problems. She developed Australia’s first evidence based program to combat compassion
fatigue among community care professionals and has more than 20 years’ of experience in leading organizational
development and change in the commercial, government and not for profit sectors. She is a Registered Counsellor
and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Training and Development. She has a Master of Counselling and a
graduate certificate in Corporate Management. As an Advocate for people thriving in the workplace, she has
presented research on Compassion Fatigue at a number of national and international conferences and published
peer reviewed articles in the Counselling Australia Journal and the Australian New Zealand 17th International
Mental Health Conference papers. She is a PhD student at the University of Queensland and continues to advance
the research on Compassion Fatigue.
michelle.black@uq.edu.auMichelle Black
University of Queensland, Australia