Compassion fatigue

CrossCurrents

Compassion satisfaction: It's good for you

Unlike compassion fatigue, which describes the negative costs of caring, compassion satisfaction, a term developed by psychologist Dr. Beth Hudnall Stamm at Idaho State University, describes the positive costs of caring and the pleasure derived from this work. Leigh MacEwan, a social worker conducting research on compassion fatigue among addiction workers, found that despite the toll of their work, staff at Lakeside Centre, an addiction treatment centre for women in Sudbury, Ontario, had tremendous resiliency stemming from job satisfaction and feeling privileged to be able to make a difference. Stamm developed the Professional Quality of Life scale to measure compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and burnout. Download the scale for free at www.isu.edu/~bhstamm.

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