Moving from compassion fatigue to compassion resilience Part 1: Compassion — A health care priority, core value, and ethical imperative

摘要

The practice of clinical veterinary medicine is a highly specialized field of care, unique in the caring professions. Working in this profession offers immense joys and rewards, from improving the health of animals to supporting the wellbeing of clients, and together, preserving the human-animal bond. Caring for patients and clients can be thoroughly satisfying, yet it can also incur a cost, “the cost of caring,” commonly known as compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard within the high care professions in which empathy, compassion, and caring for others are at the core of practice. Compassion is central to the delivery of medical services, and the cornerstone of the helping relationship, yet the ability to work in a compassionate manner can wane. Almost everyone who cares for others in the practice of medicine will eventually experience some degree of compassion fatigue, and the consequences cannot be underestimated. This multi-part series takes a comprehensive look at the concept of compassion fatigue in veterinary medicine.