THE 'COST OF CARING': MAINTAINING OUR COMPASSION DURING END OF LIFE

摘要

Providing end-of-life care for our veterinary patients can be complicated. We must be emotionally available to the grieving family, performing tasks that surround end-of-life care with compassion. And we must maintain this compassion and express empathy over repeated instances of end-of-life situations mvolving animals and families whom we have come to know as part of our extended family in the workplace. In the book Second-Hand Shock, authors Ellie Izzo and Vicki Carpel Miller strive to delineate compassion fatigue from similar conditions of posttraumatic stress disorder, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma. One of the factors found only in compassion fatigue is the chronic, repeated exposure to situations in which listening and empathizing with upset people is required. This requirement appears on the job description of every veterinary professional in one way or another.