Exploring Compassion Fatigue

In a career such as medicine, compassion lies at the bedrock of every conversation, decision, and aspect of patient care. As future doctors we are faced with the responsibility of supporting patients in their most vulnerable and compromised states. While compassion plays a pivotal role in establishing a trusting relationship, it is also important to consider the emotional toll it can take.

Compassion fatigue is described as “the emotional cost of caring for others or their emotional pain”. It can manifest in a myriad of different ways with signs including feeling helpless in front of a patient, reduced empathy, feeling anxious or detached and even having difficulty in sleeping. Evidently, compassion fatigue can have a significant impact on medical students, affecting our wellbeing, our engagement towards learning and our motivation for our future job as a doctor. Therefore, it is important to develop sustainable strategies to protect our mental wellbeing and to develop resilience along with empathy.

The first step in addressing compassion fatigue is ensuring you recognise the signs and recognising that it is a natural response to emotional demand. Hopefully the advice below will provide practical and supportive advice to help prevent or navigate through compassion fatigue.

• Reach out for support: No one has to go through challenging situations alone. Opening up to your peers,placement  lead, friends, or family can help to provide perspective, reassurance, and support.

• Reflect: Writing in a journal or talking to someone can serve as a coping strategy by helping make sense of challenging experiences to prevent emotional build-up over time . Reflection can be as simple as answering just three questions : What happened? How did this make me feel? What can I do going forward?  

• Reframe self-care: Viewing self-care as basic upkeep rather than an indulgence can help protect your mental health. Whether it is a gym session or 5 minutes of mindfulness can help you de-stress and collect your thoughts. Check out our blog on Self-care Strategies for Busy Medical Students for more advice.

• Preserving Meaning: Noticing the impact of your actions, for instance, by having a meaningful conversation with a patient, can help you acknowledge the difference you made without carrying responsibility for outcomes beyond your control.

Hopefully, the advice shared here offers some support in setting boundaries and protecting your wellbeing. Remember, compassion fatigue is not something you have to navigate alone, and reaching out for help is a sign of strength, not a weakness.