Healthcare is an environment that is inherently challenging, with providers often facing intense emotional and physical demands. Beyond the high-stakes and long hours, healthcare professionals also bear the emotional weight of their patients’ suffering, making them particularly vulnerable to stress and burnout.
The Heersink School of Medicine chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) recently hosted its August webinar, featuring endowed professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Marie-Carmelle Elie, M.D., F.A.C.E.P., F.C.C.M. Elie’s talk, titled “Navigating Compassion Fatigue in the Workplace,” explored the topics of stress, burnout, and coping strategies as it relates to individuals in healthcare.
Understanding Stress and Burnout in Healthcare
According to the 2023 Medscape U.S. Physician Burnout and Depression Report, 53% of physicians experienced burnout, while 23% experienced depression. Despite these numbers, many physicians do not seek help due to perceived stigma, the cost of treatment, or fear of negative career implications. In her talk, Elie highlighted how these feelings of depression and anxiety are exacerbated by factors such as the fear of being sued and the burden of empathetic distress.
Empathetic distress occurs when the emotional weight of a patients’ suffering becomes overwhelming, leading to emotional exhaustion and, ultimately, burnout. In order to manage these emotional challenges, Elie emphasized the importance of distinguishing between empathy and compassion.
“Empathy is an emotional response, but compassion is an action to alleviate another’s suffering.”
While empathy involves deeply feeling another’s pain, compassion involves taking actionable steps to alleviate that pain. By focusing on compassion rather than empathy alone, healthcare providers can protect their emotional well-being while still effectively supporting their patients. It’s critical to practice compassion training; as Elie shared, it is “associated with learning how to practice acceptance, reappraisal, and problem-solving when dealing with a stressor.”
Building Resilience Through Self-Care and Teamwork
Resilience allows individuals to manage stress more effectively and enhances their ability to maintain their well-being in demanding environments. To build resiliency, Elie recommended practicing self-care when exposed to emotional and physical challenges.
“Thinking about burnout and stress means looking at things like exercise, mediation, spirituality, self-care, and professional development,” she said. “Engaging in things that really make us happy or provide us joy can actually help improve our sense of well-being.”
In addition to self-care, Elie encouraged healthcare professionals to rely on their teams and colleagues during times of stress. As she noted, “There is something to be said about sitting down as a community and really discussing a trigger or painful event with other workers in your environment.” By fostering a culture of openness and support, healthcare providers can reduce feelings of isolation and build a strong sense of community during challenging times.
The Importance of Self-Compassion
Elie concluded her presentation by discussing the benefits of self-compassion training, which involves treating oneself with the same kindness and understanding that one would offer a friend in distress. This practice is especially important in healthcare, where professionals set exceptionally high standards for themselves while managing the emotional toll of caring for others.
In her presentation, she outlined three key components of self-compassion: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.
- Self-kindness involves being gentler and understanding with oneself rather than self-critical.
- Common humanity is about recognizing that suffering and personal inadequacy are part of the shared human experience, which can help individuals feel less isolated in their struggles.
- Mindfulness requires being aware of painful thoughts and emotions without over-identifying with them, allowing individuals to maintain perspective rather than becoming overwhelmed.
“After this training was completed, [participants] had significant reductions in anxiety and stress, and they had significant reductions in shame and self-criticism,” Elie said. She also noted that those who participated in the training experienced greater satisfaction in their personal and professional relationships. By creating a more compassionate relationship with themselves, healthcare providers can significantly improve their interactions with colleagues and patients.
The Path to Wellness
By embracing the valuable techniques shared in Elie’s presentation, healthcare providers can manage their compassion fatigue and burnout while fostering more positive relationships with their patients and coworkers. Her insights serve as a powerful reminder that caring for oneself is not a luxury, but a necessity in the field of healthcare.
To view her presentation, click here.
If you have any questions for Elie, please feel free to reach out to her at melie@uabmc.edu.
For feedback on future AMWA presentations, contact Chapter President Leslie Rhodes, M.D., at larhodes@uabmc.edu.