Compassion fatigue and coping strategies before death

Abstract

Compassion fatigue threatens healthcare professionals’ mental health in face of difficulties in managing empathy. This integrative review sought to verify the correlation between compassion fatigue and health professionals’ performance in hospital units that frequently deal with death, considering the self-care strategies adopted. Bibliographic search conducted on the MEDLINE and PubMed databases retrieved 11 articles published between 2011 and 2021. Results show that compassion fatigue occurs frequently in professionals who deal directly and recurrently with death, especially when dysthanasia measures are adopted. Case discussion between teams, leisure time and peer support, spirituality and meditation as well as constructive leadership were the main psychological adaptation strategies identified. Further and in-depth research is needed given the scarcity of study on the topic, especially in Brazil.