Combating Compassion Fatigue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Combating Compassion Fatigue - Essay Example Burnout is one of the major concepts of compassion fatigue. The signs of burnout, according to Espeland (2006), includes that the nurses are always exhausted, they are cynical and feel detached, and they feel that they are ineffective. They also exhibit signs that include anger, depression, paralysis, feeling stuck, irritability, cynicism, bitterness and negativity towards others, the self, and the world (Espeland, 2006). Job stress is another concept of compassion fatigue, according to Chen et al. (2009). They state that signs of job stress include job absences, conflicts with staff members, depression, staff turnover, and inferior caregiving. The difference between job stress and burnout is that burnout is the result of unrelenting job stress, over a period of time, therefore job stress is a lessor version of burnout. Compassion fatigue itself is an expanded version of burnout. As stated below, compassion fatigue is really burnout plus the fact that the nurses have to deal with very sick and dying patients, much of the time, as with oncology nurses, who exhibit high levels of compassion fatigue. According to Bush (2009), the signs of compassion fatigue are that the nurse identifies and integrates the grief, emotions and fears of their patients, and this means that their own stress and emotional pain are exacerbated. The nurses experience a kind of vicarious trauma in these situations, as they absorb the emotions of their patient, and this affects the nurse’s perceptions of trust, safety, self-esteem, control, and intimacy (Bush, 2009). Nature of the Problems and their Causes The nature of the problem of burnout is that it results in severe mental fatigue and is an energy drain, according to Espeland (2006). Espeland (2006) states that burnout also results in depersonalization and a reduced feeling of accomplishment. Espeland (2006) further states that there are five work situations which might contribute to job burnout. One is that there is ambiguity on the job, as there is a lack of goals and information. No-win situations represent another type of employment issue which contributes to burnout, and this means that the manager is always dissatisfied, no matter how well the nurses perform. Role overload is the third situation, and this means that the nurses have too many responsibilities. Role conflict is the fourth situation, which means that there are conflicting responsibilities and the nurses feel pulled in different directions. The fifth situation is when the nurses are underpaid, despite the fact that they work hard. Compassion fatigue is slightly different from burnout, but described by Bush (2009) as being an expanded form of burnout. In this case, it is distinguished from burnout, according to Bush (2009) by the fact that, in addition to there being stressors in the workplace, like between

The Sampling Frame in Study Sampling Plan Research Paper

The Sampling Frame in Study Sampling Plan - Research Paper Example Take, for example, the experience sampling method (ESM) and daily diary (DD) research wherein the off late experiences of the ditto sample of people take place for many days or weeks (Fisher & To, 2012). Issues in the designing and performing an ESM/DD research can surface, which can be related to data collection selections and timetables, steps taken, technology, training and interest of participants, and discussion related to multi-dimensional data. For example, a decision has to be made over the plan for sampling moments of experience, which may include how, how often, and for how long. Technology choice can be decided at any time but there are a number of generic alternative for sampling experiences, such as interval-contingent reporting, signal-contingent reporting, event-contingent reporting, and combining of these methodologies, which pinpoints the criticality of a sampling frame (Fisher & To, 2012). Poorly specified sampling frame can prove to be a hurdle in the research process. In the case of online surveys for sampling purpose, as on the Facebook, releasing of the survey in single waves can cause the problem of increased traffic, offering no possibility of amending the forthcoming issues if the survey link is sent to about one/third of all the network members, letting the rest of the members receive it after a gap of three days. As soon as the link is sent in the first attempt, a problem with any of the questions can arise even if the question is checked in advance in the given online survey. Even if the error is instantly rectified by the sender, it takes time for the change to reflect in the sample survey; it is because of the presence of many visitors on the website at that time. If the error is critical to the primary analysis, and the sampling model is making use of a variable, then it becomes urgent to exclude such cases from the online survey sampling.