Assignment Topic 6: Personal Wellness Reflection
Name
Grand Canyon University: HLT-302
8/30/2020
Professor
Health care is many times a world unto itself and it takes very special and unique
individuals to work within health care. The field of healthcare can take a heavy emotional and
spiritual tole on a person because one is constantly dealing with and interacting with other
individuals typically at very difficult points in their life. Compassion fatigue and burnout can be
experienced by health care workers and are a common phenomenon that can occur throughout
, Personal Wellness Reflection 3
one’s career in healthcare. Therefore, the importance of maintaining good spiritual, physical, and
mental health become important not just for patients but for healthcare professional as well. This
paper will explore compassion fatigue and burnout while looking at ways to cope with these
phenomena. The promotion of mental, physical, and spiritual health will be examined while
evaluating self-care and one’s ability to care for others.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are quite common in healthcare and have been studied
extensively throughout the years. Burnout has become increasingly common in the health care
profession and leads to interpersonal conflicts, physical symptoms, compulsive activities,
decreased productivity, and negative emotions (Espeland, 2006). Recognizing signs and
symptoms of burnout is key and can help one to cope and find solutions. Feelings of being over
worked, emotionally drained and feelings of being less productive with burnout manifesting in
physical, psychological, and behavioral reactions (Bush, 2009). Compassion fatigue is closely
related to burnout with many of the same feelings and reactions. Compassion fatigue is often
viewed or seen as an expanded form of burnout because of unique environmental stressors within
healthcare that can leave an induvial feeling emotionally drained and depressed from tending to
the emotional needs and demands of patients with healthcare (Bush, 2009). While understanding
burnout and compassion fatigue is important learning to deal with them will be key.
There are many theories that surround dealing with burnout or compassion fatigue and
understanding the work related is key contributor is important. Stress and coping theories
commonly claim that it is not the stressors themselves but how the individual responds to those
stressors that is key and that influences stress and coping responses (Bush, 2009). Stress will be
inevitable within the field of health care the key if found in how one responds to stress and how
they let that stress influence their responses. Adaptive coping responses can be seen as action