NORC Library

Compassion Fatigue Training

September 15th, 2020

During the month of September, NORC will release four training topics for three audiences as part of the training series, Understanding Trauma and Ensuring Person-Centered Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

For this series, Dr. Sheri Gibson (see bio) provides training on the following topics: person-centered care, trauma-informed care, compassion fatigue, and anxiety and grief in a time of COVID-19. Each topic will include one webinar recording and slides for facility administrators, direct care staff, and family members of individuals living in long-term care facilities. 

This week’s topic is compassion fatigue.

View the Training Webinars and Materials on the NORC Website

Take the On-Demand Training Course with Quiz Questions and Answers

The current global pandemic has demanded a lot of our humanity. Our minds, hearts, and spirits are unavoidably challenged by the daily news feeds of rising deaths, human grief, and suffering. If we do not attend to ourselves compassionately (as we often do towards others), we are at risk of the erosion of our personal well-being. This training will focus on educating attendees on the distinct differences between sympathy, empathy, and compassion; as well as the differences between compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma. Attendees will learn to identify the external and internal factors that increase one’s risk for compassion fatigue and the common associated warning signs. Attendees will have access to formal measures used to assess compassion fatigue and effective strategies will be shared to prevent the onset or worsening of symptoms. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Understand the differences between sympathy, empathy, and compassion. 
• Understand the unique symptoms associated with and contributing factors leading to burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. 
• Recognize symptoms of compassion fatigue at the individual and organizational level and be able to identify negative outcomes if left untreated. Increase competency in implementing resilience strategies – at the individual level as well as the organizational level – to enhance self-awareness and prevent onset or worsening of symptoms.