Compassion Fatigue: Assessing the Psychological and Moral Boundaries of Empathy

Chapter 9 presents the idea that Literalism undermines current social and moral boundaries for moral status. Possession of psychological capacities, moral standing, and respectful treatment are a standard package deal. So either many more beings enjoy moral status than we now think, or the relative superiority of human moral status over other beings is diminished. It introduces the role of psychological ascriptions in drawing social and moral boundaries by examining dehumanization and anthropomorphism. It argues that in the short term Literalism does not motivate us to do more than make minor adjustments to current moral boundaries. We can distinguish the kinds of psychological capacities that matter for moral status from the kinds that best divide nature at its joints. In the long run, however, Literalism prompts us to reconsider the anthropocentric standards that govern current moral boundaries.

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Counter-talk as symbolic boundary drawing: Challenging legitimate cultural practices in individual and focus group interviews in the lower regions of social space

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1177/00380261211014467 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003802612110144

Author(s):

Riie Heikkilä ◽

Anu Katainen

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Power Relations ◽

Social Space ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Focus Group Interviews ◽

Moral Boundaries ◽

Popular Classes ◽

Group Interviews ◽

Symbolic Boundary

In qualitative interviews, challenges such as deviations from the topic, interruptions, silences or counter-questions are inevitable. It is debatable whether the researcher should try to alleviate them or consider them as important indicators of power relations. In this methodological article, we adopt the latter view and examine the episodes of counter-talk that emerge in qualitative interviews on cultural practices among underprivileged popular classes by drawing on 49 individual and focus group interviews conducted in the highly egalitarian context of Finland. Our main aim is to demonstrate how counter-talk emerging in interview situations could be fruitfully analysed as moral boundary drawing. We identify three types of counter-talk: resisting the situation, resisting the topic, and resisting the interviewer. While the first type unites many of the typical challenges inherent to qualitative interviewing in general (silences, deviations from the topic and so forth), the second one shows that explicit taste distinctions are an important feature of counter-talk, yet the interviewees mostly discuss them as something belonging to the personal sphere. Finally, the third type reveals how the strongest counter-talk and clearest moral boundary stemmed from the interviewees’ attitudes towards the interviewer herself. We argue that counter-talk in general should be given more importance as a key element of the qualitative interview. We demonstrate that all three types of counter-talk are crucial to properly understanding the power relations and moral boundaries present in qualitative interviews and that cultural practices are a particularly good topic to tease them out.

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Burnout, compassion fatigue and resilience among healthcare professionals

Nursing and Health Sciences ◽

10.1111/nhs.12843 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Deependra K. Thapa ◽

Tracy Levett‐Jones ◽

Sancia West ◽

Michelle Cleary

Keyword(s):

Compassion Fatigue ◽

Healthcare Professionals

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Compassion fatigue of funeral directors during and after the first wave of COVID-19

Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/pubmed/fdab030 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Roel Van Overmeire ◽

Rose-Lima Van Keer ◽

Marie Cocquyt ◽

Johan Bilsen

Keyword(s):

Compassion Fatigue ◽

Work Experience ◽

Online Survey ◽

Secondary Trauma ◽

Compassion Satisfaction ◽

Funeral Directors ◽

Quality Of Life Scale ◽

Life Scale ◽

And Gender

Abstract Background Compassion fatigue has not been studied among funeral directors. Yet, funeral directors have been exposed to the same risks for compassion fatigue as other caregivers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods An online survey was spread two times to 287 employees of funeral home DELA, in Belgium. Once during the height of the first wave of COVID-19 in Belgium, and a second time at the end of the first wave. The professional quality of life-scale 5 (PROQOL-5) was used to measure compassion fatigue, which includes burnout, compassion satisfaction and secondary trauma. Non-parametric tests were performed. Results In total, 104 participants answered the first survey, and 107 the second. Burnout increases from survey 1 to survey 2 (P < 0.001), while compassion satisfaction (P = 0.011) and secondary trauma decrease (P < 0.001). In survey 1, only age (P = 0.007) and gender (P = 0.040) were found to be significantly associated with secondary trauma. In survey 2, having more work experience is associated with having a higher burnout (P = 0.008) and secondary trauma (P = 0.001) score. Neither for burnout (P < 0.001), nor for secondary trauma (P < 0.001) are there any respondents in the highest category. Conclusions Although overall funeral directors do not have acute problems with compassion fatigue, burnout scores increase significantly after the first wave.

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Compassion fatigue among obstetricians and gynecologists

Current Psychology ◽

10.1007/s12144-021-02022-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Deniz Dirik ◽

Ramazan Sak ◽

İkbal Tuba Şahin-Sak

Keyword(s):

Compassion Fatigue

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