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Compassion Fatigue and Teaching

Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR

Last week I had the privilege and honor of speaking about compassion fatigue at the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators (AVTE) meeting in Cincinnati. I was excited to bring awareness of compassion fatigue to our technician educators so they might take that information back to their classes and share with technician students before they even got into practice and “into the frying pan” so to speak.

What I didn’t expect was that the audience of educators also related to compassion fatigue in a whole different way, through their own experience as teachers. (Funny how that didn’t dawn on me, although I had been told that educators of all sorts deal with their own “brand” of compassion fatigue.) So I offered that the information I was giving them at AVTE could be used in many ways, both to teach their students, and to harness for their own healing as it were.

They related to the symptoms, such as bottled up emotions, impulse to rescue anyone in need, isolation from others, sadness and apathy, the need to voice excessive complaints about management and coworkers, lack of interest in self-care practices, reoccurring nightmares and flashbacks, persistent physical ailments, difficulty concentrating and mentally tired, and prone to accidents. Hopefully they absorbed the information about how to minimize and cope with compassion fatigue as well, to aid in their own personal healing.

We talked about the phases of becoming a new helper. Phase One is The Dream, which perhaps emerged in childhood. We imagine the good work we will do and that dream sustains us through our education. But eventually we have to enter reality, and enter Phase Two, The Start of our career. We are enthusiastic, ready to make the world a better place! We realize that our efforts will ease the plight of animals, and our enthusiasm overflows; we live the cause!

Yet all too quickly, Phase Three, Losing Our Breath, comes along. It sinks in that the journey is long, and we discover the many difficulties of the job. Our enthusiasm dampens, and we may begin to feel mad, angry, perhaps hopeless.

Phase Four, Desperately Seeking Rhythm, comes next with an awareness that we need to pace ourselves to sustain our sanity, health and energy level. At this point, we slow down, look around, and hopefully devise a plan. At this important point, we will either take steps to move forward…or, we will check out and leave the profession.

The goal is to reach Phase Five: Finding Our Rhythm. This is when we successfully find our pace, our niche, our way and this discovery is thrilling and provides a sense of relief. We know better what to expect of our career…and we have previous successes to draw from! The educators at the AVTE could also relate to these phases, both as technicians perhaps before they began teaching, or solely in their careers as educators.

Along the way that morning, an equine veterinarian made an interesting comment. He had begun to experience these symptoms of compassion fatigue, and noticed that his love for the profession was wavering (these are my words, not his). He felt a need to get back to the newness of veterinary medicine, the enthusiasm that existed in those first few Phases.

His answer was to go into part-time teaching, to surround himself with excited students ready to make the world a better place. For him, this connected him back to that enthusiasm he once felt, and is helping his sustain his career as a veterinarian. Amazing the opportunities we have to heal and handle, compassion fatigue!

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