International Nurses’ Day 2025

Here at the hospice, we are aware that clinical and non-clinical staff are exposed to sad and difficult situations on a frequent basis. It is recognised that such exposure is an occupational hazard in this sector of work and can impact our emotional wellbeing and lead to compassion fatigue.   

Compassion fatigue has been defined by psychologist Charles Figley as an “inevitable consequence of being immersed every day in other people’s trauma and suffering”. It is explained further that when we observe another person’s suffering, our own nervous system assumes that this ‘trauma’ is also happening to us and so initiates the fight or flight response. In a work capacity, it is not possible to do either of these things, and so staff continue with their job, repress the feelings that arise and carry on. However, it is recognised that the physical and emotional reaction does not go away and unless staff address these feelings, they can build up over time, leading to the symptoms of compassion fatigue.  

As a hospice, we are therefore raising awareness of this and exploring how to equip staff with the ability to recognise the signs, respond to them and recover from any fatigue experienced. This sort of training could be described as emotional health and safety training. Increased awareness of this risk should enable staff to proactively consider and plan ways to maintain their emotional well-being and resilience.  

We have engaged with a national training company to deliver training sessions to the nursing staff on our inpatient units and a session for clinical leaders, so they are better placed to also recognise the signs and proactively support staff.   

We hope time spent on this topic will provide practical and meaningful support to staff, help to ensure they can continue with the roles/careers they have chosen to work in helping others, whilst also maintaining their emotional wellbeing.    

As a leader, I attended the session this week and we were reminded of the simple things that can help. These include taking time to ‘refuel, recharge and relax’. A new term was introduced called ‘responsible selfishness’ and we were encouraged to ensure we prioritise time for ourselves and things we enjoy in our busy work and personal lives as a way to keep our ‘emotional reserves’ topped up.  

Next steps will be to review the feedback from the training sessions, consider how to ensure that the above concepts are shared wider across clinical services and beyond. Emma will be delivering a LEN bitesize on this topic in June to help further spread the word.