Question

Which caregiver is most likely to experience compassion fatigue

Select one:

a. A son who is highly engaged in helping his father manage progressive symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. The son is in good health and spends about 20 hours with his father weekly.

b. Unpaid children who rotate caregiving responsibilities equitably for their mother who needs assistance with daily meal preparation due to diabetes, arthritis, and glaucoma.

c. A spouse who provides ongoing care for his wife who suffers from mild Alzheimer's' disease. He feels responsible to care for her due to their wedding vows and refuses assistance.

d. A daughter who empathizes deeply with her mother's struggle to manage functional limitations. The daughter receives copious praise for daily support provided.

Answer 1

D - A daughter who empathizes deeply with her mother's struggle to manage functional limitations. The daughter receives copious praise for daily support provided

There is some recent academic literature suggesting that compassion fatigue is a misnomer and should be replaced with the term, empathy fatigue. Evidence supporting this change comes from a burgeoning literature examining the neurophysiology of empathy versus compassion meditation practices. Whereas empathy can be defined as feeling what another feels and cumulative negative effects over time can come from the accretion of the assumptions of others painful emotions and experience. Compassion relates to a feeling of caring, loving or desire to improve the lot of others and may or may not require awareness of others feeling and emotions, but instead arises from a humanistic or even altruistic desire for subject to be free of suffering. Studies of training of compassion practices among health care provides has demonstrated positive effects compared to empathy practices which do not improve provider functioning