NR 501 Week 3 Assignment Concept Analysis Template - Compassion Fatigue

Model Case: Carissa is a day shift nurse who works on the medical-surgical unit. She is struggling financially in paying for school in addition to her new car, so she decided to pick up an extra shift and work a fourth day in a row. Carissa has not been getting much rest as she has been having severe menstrual cramps despite taking medication for it, and these cramps have been disrupting her sleep. Carissa, being so exhausted is not only suffering from her physiological problems but is also depressed after losing her hospice patient today who she has been taking care of the last four days. Carissa is accustomed to patient expirations as this has been the third week in a row where she witnessed a hospice patient expire on her unit. She is finally done with her last shift this week and is getting ready to give report to the night nurse, Ajah. As Carissa is giving report, she no longer refers to her patients by their names, but by their room numbers instead or defines them as, “Room 437 is the one who constantly wants her pain meds, 438 is the needy one, 439 has too much going on etc. They are all the same, just a new day. I don’t even remember what their diagnoses are or their discharge plan, I am just too tired to care and I am so glad I am off the next few days”. Ajah, who has been off for a while and is a good friend to Carissa shows concern about her behavior and points out an error Carissa almost made in adjusting the rate of one of their patient’s IV Normal Saline. Nurse Carissa apologizes to Nurse Ajah for giving her a bad report and thanks her for pointing out the mistake she almost made.Carissa reminds her again how tired she is and also describes how depressed she felt after losing her patient. Ajah demonstrates compassion and allows Carissa to vent to her about her emotions, and Carissa feels better than she did prior to giving her report. Carissa is clearly exhibiting attributes of compassion fatigue, as she has fatigue from inadequate rest in addition to having severe cramps, she is lacking her clinical decision making skills as she nearly made a mistake with the rate of her patient’s IV fluid and does not recall information about her patients, she is not thinking clearly to have professional judgment as she is still depressed over losing her patient, and she is emotionally exhausted from having the traumatic experience of patient expiration every week in addition to having financial stressors in her personal life. Nurse Ajah offered her the opportunity to debrief and showed her the compassion and emotional support Carissa needed to feel better.