Aug. 16, 2022

#74: The mental rectal part 2: Compassion fatigue. With Rhonda Andrews and Dr Taleta Hompas

#74: The mental rectal part 2: Compassion fatigue. With Rhonda Andrews and Dr Taleta Hompas
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Season 1

Rhonda is back for another thorough probing of the mind, and in this episode, we examine the phenomenon of compassion fatigue from tip to… tail. What is it, how is it different from burnout, how do we recognise it, and what can we do to head it off long before it rears its ugly head? (Spoiler alert: yes, rest and self-care and boundaries and all of those other common sense things all play an important role, but you might be surprised by what the ONE THING is that can provide you with the best protection against becoming a member of the ‘I survived compassion fatigue’ club.)

This episode features a conversation between Rhonda and Dr Taleta Hompas as they unpack Taleta’s story and her experiences around compassion fatigue. Taleta is a vet whose career has covered multiple aspects of the vet journey: from the frontlines of the reception desk to the trenches of vet nursing and intense stints of emergency vetting, all the way to founder and director of an emergency business and being responsible for the wellbeing of the team. She shares openly about the insidious creep of compassion fatigue in her career, a breaking point, and getting back to passion and compassion without the fatigue.

If you haven’t met Rhonda yet - where have you been?! Rhonda is the founder, managing director and senior psychologist at the Barrington Centre, a specialist psychological firm that works with individuals and teams to help them address complex environments. Rhonda also helped create a program specifically modified for the Vet Profession called Systems of Support, or SOS.

Go to thevetvault.com for show notes and to check out our guests’ favourite books, podcasts and everything else we talk about in the show.

Join us for our first ever LIVE event in Noosa in November '22 with special guests Prof David Church and Prof Jill Maddison. 

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There was a patient that made that moment very clear to me, it was part.Contextual, there was a lot of things going on in our family life at that time.So we're, there were a lot of emotional, stresses outside of work, coupled with a very demanding roster.
I was working purely overnight in an unforgiving pattern.The caseloads Bhai I wasn't sleeping in between shifts, so, you know, if that was all cumulative.And this one particular shift and I think, you know, your reactions at the time you could probably, you know, sort of place in the context of everything else going on.
Yes, I'm tired isn't sleep.Well, yes, I'm trying to study as well but for me it was actually euthanasia but that I couldn't do and it's the first time in my career that I had to ask another Vector.Do it for me.And it wasn't as though I'd already done five that night and, you know, this was the straw that broke the camel's.
That is the only patient that I'd had to euthanize that night.It wasn't even a particularly busy night.I just got to that consult, you know, for the dog.It was an end-of-life decision, it was totally justifiable.The clients were lovely and I just couldn't do it.
And the dog came out the back, we put the catheter in and I just I just emotionally detached my could not do it and I couldn't put a finger on why but I just had to ask one of my colleagues.Could you do this for me?
I can't do this right now.I felt it was almost like a physiological.Almost a visceral reaction wound up again.I didn't cry.I didn't break down but I just you know, literally it's like a stress response.You can't think clearly, you can't process and work.
Methodically as you're trained.I just sort of fell apart.Brenda welcome back.
Thanks very much.You love you too?Baby here.The mental rectal as we call it, right?Yeah, absolutely, exactly.And it's a good one.It's compassion fatigue, whether they are we talking about you and talitha had that fantastic discussion around compassion fatigue, Hot Topic, right?
It is very much, I think I'm reminded of it pretty much daily at the moment you and I it really came to the fore yesterday even have.It was just saying To me that runs a big practice and he just came into the clinic and there, he was standing in front of the animal in front of the client.
And there was just absolutely nothing and there was just no sense of connection.It was just he said you just felt blank and that's a really good description of compassion fatigue because it is exactly as the name describes Hibs it's essentially feeling exhausted from caring.
Well.So of course I've got questions from from from to L description about her experience.A similar thing where she just literally hit that wall with it.Almost a lot of it sounds very similar to when we talked and when we read about burnout it is there a difference doesn't matter within the difference or not because really the preventative is are going to kind of be the same, but For suppose for academics Acres that are difference between burnout and compassion fatigue.
There is and I think we do need to differentiate between the two.Because the whole thing about the compassion fatigue, is that what we've got happening?There is in simple terms, it's the cost of caring, so you've got that emotional burden or emotional residue of caring.
It can actually better way of looking at it Hugh.Who is to put it in line with what I would call secondary post-traumatic stress or precarious trauma because it's got the same sort of symptoms now, if it goes unchecked, then that turns into burnout.
So, what we've got to look at is that compassion.Fatigue is one that really has those?If you like quite the, the bucket being emptied, A Time, whereas bernath, whilst it is it's got similar things about slow and cumulative.
It very much isn't about just a loss of energy, which is what compassion, fatigue is burnout, really has.Some very significant symptom ology from a cognitive and psychological perspective.
And it's very destructive very quickly, whereas the good news about compassion fatigue, is if we catch it.Early, the bounce back is very quick and we can really Rectify it very quickly, burn out.
People have gone a long way down the track before it starts to show itself.And so, therefore recovery is much much longer and much more complex.So I guess that's where I'd like to people to see the difference in treat, treat your compassion fatigue, like a secondary trauma because I mean, we can actually really look at some good proactive, strategies and quick recovery.
Whereas the burnout is very much about that.Creep, you know, that slow Creek behind us.We don't see it coming.Whereas compassion fatigue, we can see it coming.We've actually got some really important signs that I'd like to talk about.
And so, is it fair to say that compassion fatigue, is it's one of the steps on the journey towards Bernard very often.Yes, yes, often exactly.It's a component of burnout.So you'll, you'll often see as a flag that disassociation from your emotions.
And that's the first sign of compassion fatigue.But it's also some of the signs that if go unchecked can then be like velcro attach itself to a lot of other stuff and then it becomes on the slippery slope to burn out so is this I like to simplify things.
Can we say about your car?Is your life or your career or yourself, you run out of fuel on the highway and you just need to get to the field station and fill up.That's more compassion.Fatigue engine is blown out needs to be completely over all new engine or rebuild.
That's been happening.Okay.Cool.
And let's just throw in for good measure.They.Are you learned the engine blowing up?You've got flat tires.All the way around as well.It's a, hopefully not quite a rite of passage almost there.I remember very crudely one.Vet said to me, it's the CBF can't be fucked.
Yeah, that's exactly what comes to mind and then and I've definitely when it hits you suddenly.It's for me, it was always on shift work.It's 3:00 in the morning and I'm wrestling a day.For an x-ray that doesn't want to be x-rayed and I just just want to lose it and just go, I literally just got a fuck.
Okay, just go away.I just wanna go to bed, the highs and the lows of profound, you know, you have these climactic.
Stress is stress, is when you've got critical patients arriving, that need to be stabilized.Intense periods of emotions, dealing with the owners in those situations, you know, your own involvement and you know, wanting to personally wanting to help those patients and those clients and then the Lowe's out the other side where sometimes you don't get the outcome that we all hope that we would.
And so as you progress through your career, those stressful occasions only really become one or two percent of the cases that you See, but it's a me when I started to see this trend emerging, it was during periods, where they were very high caseloads presenting to the emergency department and I didn't feel that stress.
I didn't feel that urgency and that level of desire, to go 110% of the way for the patients, fill the client.I never stopped caring, but it wasn't to the same depth.And I almost felt a little bit robotic in how I was, you know, dealing with situations.
And yeah, you just felt like you were going through the motions at its best.You felt a little bit tired and you just felt like you needed a holiday in a bit of a break and at its worst, it reached a physiological level of fatigue.
And numbness is probably the best way to describe it.It was a lack of joy.And a lack of caring about a profession that we entered into because we are so passionate about about our clients and our patients and you'd lost that sense of joy that makes going to work every day.
The reason you're going up in the mornings.So let's talk about some of the feelings of what compassion fatigue looks like.I think the really obvious one is that sense of feeling emotionally So, drained that feeling of the buckets, empty?
I can't I don't want to care.Can't care anymore.Like what the vet said to me yesterday, you know, he said blank.But I like feeling like a zombie in the face of things that normally you would react to like a death of it Etc.And you just numb and you know you you find yourself listening to a client and they talking about something quite terrible and your minds just gone, wandering off your virtually switched off or you.
I shut down and you know you were off on to something else or you just not even taking in anything and so that's at one end, I think the other is and I do see this and particularly, you know, where two and a half years into covid.
So that level of intolerance to clients and you know, you see them and some of them are.So we've got to be very careful here that some of its very rational that some of the clients are very demanding.Bull the irritating.
And it's the guy said to me yesterday, they just giving me the shits, you know, and so he doesn't feel any sense of Tolerance with the client and and feel like this, they talking dribble and trivial stuff.
Yeah, you get a feeling.There's a good description for me is when you see that console pup or the reception says, look at this console, blah, blah, blah.This just happened.And you can you go, why?Why can't you freaking idiot?Just stop being so stupid.
I just take care of your pets.Can you can you not jest stop doing these dumb fish tanks?I just want to have a cup of coffee.Yeah yeah and that's exactly.It's so, so all of those signs what you've just spoken about you, and what I've just shared, they are the overt signs and the internal signs of compassion fatigue.
And, you know, and how colleagues can pick it up really quickly.You know, I mean vet nurse As in b say to me that they can really pick up those subtle changes.They might be doing euthanasia, they might be just doing a consult, they might even be doing a new puppy consult, you know, and the whole puppies bouncing around all over the place, and there's just no connection from the nurse or the vet with that.
And so, our colleagues are very astute when it comes to those subtle ships.And I guess when we start to talk about, how do we, how do we jump?Up in early to get on top of this.I'm going to say our best a source of support and our greatest way of being able to really flip this around.
Quite quickly is to give ourselves permission as a team and say, listen, if there's any signs that I'm chilling out here.And I'm really just disconnecting from what's going on around me or what's happening with the client or what's happening with the animal flag it because that's going to be Our number one sign for me to do something about it.
And, and often we tolerate change in ourselves, and we adapt to that subtle, unconscious change, whereas our colleagues who are trusted with us, can pick it up really quickly.
And so if we give them that license to say something, then we're not doing that unconscious adapt adaptation.We can actually say, oh gee, I've got to do something about this now.So, you're saying that our self-awareness around, it can be blunted, where we don't realize that you're being a uncompassionate prick, but your colleague, your colleague can see it.
And we have to have an agreement to say if I'm being a dick, can you please tell me?Hey, do you need a break?You need exactly to Chocolate.Yeah, no, that's exactly right.It's a really good way of putting it here.As self-awareness does get blunted.
It gets because we are adaptive by Nature.We don't actually see it as a stutely as others around us and so therefore, that's subtle.Subtle change that we keep on going?
Yes.Well, you know we just acclimatize would be a way.I'd put it and but if we're actually saying as a team listen anything that you know do it Once that's okay.Do it twice?I think I've put up the hand.
Do it the third time.Hey, we need to talk about it.Yeah, that's great.I do.It's you need a nice trusting environment to be able to do that.And how do you create that environment because what can happen when their persons in that space.And if it's not expected and you go, hey, you acting in this way.
They might get defensive and say, no, I'm not, I'm fine.Yeah, exactly.And, and if you haven't got that, uh, Tremont upfront beforehand, because one of the signs of compassion fatigue, is that degree of irritability.Then highly likely here, if you just bounce on them, for the first time about it, then you're going to get a very negative reaction.
So recently, I've been speaking at a couple of conferences and also then talking to some, you know, large practices around Australia and I think what I'm really liking what I'm hearing is that they're saying you know that we are.
Eating up a healthy well-being environment where there's no Stigma to actually talk around some of the symptoms or signs of change in our colleagues and the point where they're having some stand-up conversations and stand up to meetings on a daily or a weekly basis where they can actually Express their emotions or because it is exactly what you said, you are trusted environment.
They can actually say to one.Another hear you?You just didn't seem yourself yesterday or I've just been noticing over the past couple of weeks, you know, normally you'd have a good chuckle when little puppy comes in for console or having their first rounds of injections and you just were just not yourself.
You just were going through the motions.And so that's okay because people are not saying oh he's having a crack at me or they're criticizing me.It's an environment of I'm supporting you because how you just weren't your normal self?
Yes, I used to generating problem, grease and your differential this and methodical treatment plans.And to me, it just got numb and it just felt like a absence to be able to default to those processes that we've built up and developed over time to rely on, to get us through those situations where you've got three crashing patients, all arrived at once, or you got ten people waiting out in the waiting room, it was Didn't complete inability for me to draw in any of those you are so reliant.
On your ability to be able to deal with things and also other people rely on you, to be able to do that.That's your job and to not be able to draw on those resources when you need them.It's, yeah, probably the best word is frightening.
I think the visceral reaction is one of my towns.Often Justice, get these very fine must fasciculations.In which to me, I just sort of it's just my body's way of saying.I'm not coping with this right now and I think it to a mixed a very busy emergency room floor.
What you sent with that out-of-body experience is probably just spot-on, wonder you're just all of a sudden, completely unaware of everything that you're usually able to triage in your periphery comfortable, that everything's going on and it's in the right place and you're just completely I'm wearing anything.
Angie, you just disconnected from it.Once you pointed out drawn to then, what's the next step?So I let's say my, let's say it's me.I'm a colleague, says to me, hey, you not yourself.You grumpy, or you and then I, then I recognizing.
Okay, here's a, here's what's happening.What's the Practical step from there then?Is it just an awareness and try and try and change it or what are the actions that you need to take?Yeah, and I think there's a number of ways and I think once the person who's been given the feedback is saying, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.Yeah.Just not.Not me then.They need to unpack it.They need to either unpack that with themselves.If they've got quite a good self-awareness or they may feel a person who's pointed it out, they'd like, to take it offline and have a coffee or go for a walk or just sit down.
In the sunshine and just have a talk about it and have a look at, okay, well, what is actually making me feel exhausted, or what is it that really is, is, is affecting me, and it could be, that it can be quite specific things in that compassion, fatigue, like, could really have a classic of the back-to-back consults.
It could be a particular type of treatment that they're doing and I bring up euthanasia.Is that often comes up with me that people are just got to An exhaustion point about euthanasia.And so, it might be that they're really identifying, what are the things that perhaps are some of the triggers in that compassion fatigue, or is it that they've just been working really long stretches without a holiday and the hours.
So it's about firstly finding out what's contributing to that and then it might be a number of things because life isn't It's not just one thing then being able to say, okay, let me experiment, let me change that around and see whether or not that make a difference.
So for instance, it might be simple thing.I haven't had a holiday.I've been plugging away through covid for two and a half years.So this is the time now to say I must give myself a breather or it could be.Okay.I'm going to actually instead of facing up to new clients every 15 minutes, you know, after so many I'm going to have a 15 minute break.
So you start to change the pattern of work.However, small but it's changing the pattern of what you think may be contributing to The Compassion fatigue, and then checking, if that's made any different.
So it's not going to be a overnight change, but we would expect it to flip around in weeks because if it doesn't Ven it then starts to go on to the journey that we spoke about of being more complex.
So, I'm one when compassion fatigue, is flagged, get in find out what possible things that are contributing and really make a dramatic change quickly so that your pull it up.
So, you know, I had one recently in Victoria and she was crying for most of each of her rosters and when we sort of unpack, it was particularly around a connection that she'd had that.
And this is where you can parallel it to trauma that they've been a connection with losing her own animal, our own dog, and the similarity of dogs that came in with the sun, with the presenting symptoms.And whilst there's wasn't as dramatic.
She went overboard in her care and in Compassion because automatically she saw symptoms that she then jumped to thinking this animals going to die.It's going to go in the same direction, my my dog did and so she absolutely drained herself very quickly and so, therefore there was that tyrannous with that compassion fatigue.
So she didn't have numbness.She just had a untapped emotion which then flipped from 0 to 100 and then she had nothing.And so she went from tyrannous to blank and so what we did with the great support of the owner of the business, we did give her a breather for two weeks, not two one week fully away and then one week actually doing something in the way of some research for the business rather than client interface.
And I'm really impressed the in two weeks, she'd actually done a great deal of recovery because she had very good self-awareness.Once she understood what the connection was, she freed herself up I put some firmer expectations around myself in terms of my personal boundaries, but also my work boundaries, either everything personally that was going on in the background.
After that time, we change States.My husband had changed careers.The children who are very young.There were three and five had changed schools, two dogs, which were our first children both were diagnosed with cancer Within Months of each other, both undergoing chemo.
And, you know, you're trying to be the support pillars for everyone while still.We were still working full time because financially at that time, we needed to the shifts were demanding the roster with demanding, it was just the perfect storm, but I let all my self-care mechanisms, go in that time and just trying to survive.
And I think, The moving forward, it is emphasized to me, the importance of prioritizing through self-care mechanisms in order to be able to be the best support that you can for your partner for your friends, and your colleagues, and then also to provide to be the best that you can with your clients and your patient.
So I didn't see self-care as a secondary need anymore.It was, it became the priority and they never realized the superpower of sleep and I always sort of, you know, I think especially as it easy, see fit, but I think we're probably all guilty of this.
There was that stigma that sleeps for the week?Plenty of time to sleep when you're dead and not the case and you always left it till after you eat wrapped up through his emails of you finish that work or you stay late from the shift, answer you to rely on four or five hours a night and, you know, you saw it as a weakness, if you couldn't function.
After that.And so for me, it was recognizing that I need that rest physiologically and emotionally.So making sure that I got seven or eight hours of sleep regularly and regular exercise.
You know, I'm very active, I've done triathlons for many years, but to make sure that that is a priority.Not just as a almost like a guilty pleasure that I used to indulge myself in but as Way to help build my own resilience.
And it's an elite coaching personal coaching really helped to raise that level of Consciousness and deliberateness about my Approach.And so to me it's seeing those early precursors that will then tell me hey we need to change something here.
What is it that needs to change and then doing it?So recognizing the early signs was is probably the key takeaway attorney.Also, increasing my expectations from the workplace, what it looks like to have a workplace that is supportive of their employees.
And sees that, you know, there is a there is a human face to all of these.And we need to create those sustainable Koreans for our employees.We need to have a sustainable bolsters and sustainable workflows so that our employees are being the best version.
Jeans and things sounds and providing that best level of care that's going to let them enjoy their careers for years to come.I think that the biggest things for me, things that you can immediately take away yourself and Implement on an individual level but also within an organizational context as well.
The individuals we need to know our Intel's be more in tune with yourself.You're not a bird.Robot, you're a human with needs and values that are important and are worth listening to, and that's different for everybody.
And what's going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back for one host is going to be completely different for another and I think it's just so important to tune into yourself and know what that tells you where your boundaries are that you're not willing to compromise on and they can really difficult things to identify as a new graduate or recent graduate.
Because you feel either compared to the vets been out for five years or 10 years, you know, my goodness, why do I need fewer consults with the day or why do I need to change my shift structure?Or why do I need more holidays?Things like that, but it is so important to know your own value, your own worse and your own boundaries and respect.
Then I think the second one which is equally challenging is to have those difficult conversations.Ins.And, you know, just an extension of knowing your own boundaries is how those difficult conversations with your bombs with your manager.
With whoever it might be so that you can put in place those protective mechanisms for yourself so that you don't reach that point where you're not functioning at 3:00 in the morning on the floor and it goes conversations are difficult to have and they difficult to get used to and the only thing that makes them easier is Hang them.
And I think that's just something as a profession that we need to get better doing it.Just a muscle and I think the third one is really there's so much stigma around mental health and our industry mother.And that's why, you know, your series is so exciting.
And, you know, we are working to debunk that stigma and to say this is another skill and of the course you'll that equally as important as your technical skills.And that we To develop that and I think on an organizational level, that's for those organizations to provide that mental health support for their employees, it's to break down the stigma within the practices.
So that people feel comfortable about having this conversation saying I'm feeling anxious.I'm feeling overwhelmed but on a individual level it's supporting your colleagues, it's checking in with the vet, all the nurse next to you when you see them, A little bit quiet when you see them a bit distracted and they just guarding.
Are you okay?So it's I love it and it sounds almost a simple in theory, but it sounds very doable, right?And I think we all want to do that, but here's a conundrum and I don't know if this is necessary is my maybe more practice management and bigger picture business shift, but the this problem that we faced with this to go, yeah, we've got to make space for these sort of things to happen, but that means that that person now has to have two weeks off.
And then means that the rest of the team, the easy answer is we'll get a Locum will cover it but that doesn't happen.We can't get Logan because we're all under the pump as a profession really globally.That's only what it's.So then you got the rest of the team going.We can one arm doing extra shifts to cover for vet X who is having a as compassion fatigue, but awfully kind of on the edge of compassion fatigue and now that's overloading me.
So we've got to provide support, without feeling resentment towards that person and then there's guilt for That person going.Well, I'm letting the team down because because I can't handle this stuff, so I don't know.It's very, very complicated situation.And this isn't theoretical this stuff seen this multiple times, right?
The practice owner is supportive but then the onus of the extra work falls on the rest of the team, have you come across that and then how do we handle it?And look, you're quite right Hue and you know they are the secondary consequences that it then falls on the shoulders of others and then you've got a risk of what happens to them.
The example I gave was the person had already got into that compassion fatigue and so we needed to short-circuit it and do something quite radical.So yes, there is a knock-on effect.I think the beauty about it was.So let me just add to this because the practice manager had a very good trust with the others.
They actually called it out, spoke about it said, we're going to look at a two-week block here.Can you support?At it.And so the others had a defined period, it wasn't a how long's a piece of string and they felt that they could do that with a defined period of time.
So I think that helped because it was good communication but as as you rightly said it does have to have buy-in with others otherwise you get that resentment.But I'd like to talk about we can stop all of that we don't have to go down that track.That's when it's happened.
I'd like To be at the proactive end, the pointy end and going, hey, if we looked at this as a team as individuals and we look at our self-care, we look at our and, you know, as we know, it's bandied around a lot, the word resilience, but we look at what a my triggers then.
Let me get at the front end.So I'm embedding into my weak things that will stop me from Um, actually getting into that compassion, fatigue, space.And, you know, it's an oxymoron but the key one is that was compassion.
Fatigue is exactly what it says you.You're tired of caring.The antidote is actually connection with people who you love and Trust because unlike the clients, the ones who you love and Trust.
Giving emotion to you.Not taking yours away and that's the big difference.So, you know, I hear people say to me, oh, God, Rhonda.How can you say connection?I'm over connection.You know.I'm bloody you giving me, you're giving me the sort of the poison chalice, but it isn't.
It's actually connection with a different type of person because they are giving back to you not.You are getting drained further.So, would that be A different kind of client?Are we talking outside of work?
Do you going to connect with your, your personal relationships to get that positive energy for work?Or can you achieve this within the workplace?I think depending upon people's environments?I think you can get it from both that certainly, from your personal life, where you have people who you can trust and people who you connect with.
And, you know that Will replenish you with, you know, that great emotional support.And hopefully there might be at least one because I'm not after quantity, I'm after quality.There might be one person in the work environment who also nourishes you emotionally, just because it could be through humor but it could be through some common interest but they're not draining you.
They're not taking more away and depleting your Ocean.They are topping you up.And so, it's important to identify who those people are.And they're the ones you go to, because at a proactive level, they're the ones who are going to really Shield you from compassion fatigue, and then we need to look at things that you can do.
So, that's connection.That's the big one that I really Advocate, and then you can do the smaller things like How you deal with your day how you debrief?At the end of the day, how you see?
All right, what out of the day was really challenging and being able to voice it and that purely could be voicing it to yourself.Now as you drive home, you speak out a loud.Okay.What was the shitty thing that happened today?
What was the great thing that happened today?And so you're letting go of it, I have some great Great vets, who share with me that the way they leave home.And the way they come back to home, they absolutely deliberately have like a change in in in their environment.
So simple things like they strip off some of their clothes as before they walk in the door.So, you know, and it's come from covid.But people are now seeing it as a great thing.That they taking off some of the bit clothing before they come into home.
So there's a literal and figurative stripping off of the day going and having a shower or going and you know, going for a walk or just doing something that is a deliberate punctuation and change a gear change between being at work and then coming home and even If that's at 2 a.m., I'd love this round, I love the connection and compassion as an antidote to compassion fatigue and it shows, you know, when we talk, I've said the several times on other episodes when I talk to vets on the podcast and they and the ones who are thriving and resilient and who 30 years out and they love being Reds.
And the key thing, the thing that they always say is I'd love the connections.I have with the people at work.Nobody almost nobody ever says, I love the fantasy.Actually I do I love all the all the dogs that I said they do and it's obviously a key thing is that desire to heal and to help and to cure but it's the human connection that keeps them resilient.
So it's so cool that there's actual science behind it.Yeah.And engineer in the thing, we've got to understand here.Why are people attracted to the veterinary practice?Because there are caring bunch of individuals.
So by default, they're going to be more so Psychologically vulnerable and psychologically connected.So therefore we need to say that's a given that's what makes them great in their job.So what we need to do is say how do we then give them the strategies to make sure that their greatest asset doesn't become their greatest deficit?
Yeah run do.I do about so the way you talked about the way you have to work and think about work and looking Or the connection.That's a, that's a quality of how you work but what about quantity, does that come into into play for?I feel like, for me, it does.
When I do, I actually can't handle full time with practice without getting those compassion, fatigue feelings.It's very hard for me.I get drained via 40 50 hours a week, but if I do fewer hours and shorter shifts, then it's completely sustainable.
For me, I can, I can focus on the positive and I can Stay resilient and but then I get to the point where it's okay.Now it's too much.I just have.I'm empty.Is that is that the thing that you find as well?And obviously, it'll be different for different people in different stages of their lives.But is it?
There's a play a role and you and you write it.It is extremely different.It's it's everyone's on a Continuum.For some people, though, hours of work.The type of work.The consults are doing all of those are variables that need to be explored and four.
Some people, they actually don't mind the back-to-backs and because of the stage, they are in their practice, they love it.They're a sponge.They want to keep doing it at that pace.I all I just say is keep a check on that so that any, once again, subtle changes you're picking up.
So I think rather than zooming in and just focusing on work hours, I think it's the whole package people need to look at, as I said, 10th.So, what are the consults?How many, what are the hours, Etc.
But for me, what, what keeps on being missed is in a lot of that practices, I hear them doing operational.Debriefs, I do not see them doing psychological debriefs and if they do, they merge it into one debrief.
And that for me is a No-No that's like using a trying to find an analogy here.It's like me saying to a vet.Oh, well, whilst you're doing the cleaning of the teeth of my dog, if you wouldn't mind, just taking doing some biopsies.
And if you wouldn't mind, just taking the tumor out of the dog at the same time and if you could cut them too because whilst I've got them under then, let's do the whole full monty and so you know you look at me and go, what have you been on?Well there's people ask all the time runner that's what they want from us.
It's a running joke.In our profession of, It's Always joke with.I'm scheduled for a knee surgery.I always say to them if it is beforehand, would you mind keeping my nails while I'm out?Because that's where we get all the time.And so, you know, so I say the same with the debriefing, you know, I can't highlight how important it is to embed it into a daily or a weekly style of the practice operating.
So it's not Waiting for the ship to get the fan.It's actually something that's just built in.Just as if you eat drink, go to sleep, that sort of thing.It's the same Paradigm and so you're just saying okay, you know and it can be as simple as Hugh.
Let's look at the week.Let's look at the wash up of the week.You know, tell me the top three great things that have happened this week and then tell me the three Three real challenges that is you were driving home.And you're headed, the pillow, you started to think about And then we just explore that a little.
I'll let you talk not into problem-solving, not even to making you feel good, just letting you talk and that's all that in ninety percent of the time.That's all the person needs for diffusing it.
Otherwise if it gets caught up in them, then it's unspoken, it's unidentified.And then the next week, adds to that and so, then we have that compassion, fatigue building, Beautiful.
Rhonda, as always, a pleasure and a privilege.Thank you for speaking to us.Thank you for what you do.We'll see your details and how people can get in touch with you in the show description.Thank you L, for sharing your stories are openly and honestly have a marvelous week.
Everyone will speak again soon.Do you think to finish up weight belt live baby 22 to 25, November Louisa two days of clinical content with Prop, Joe medicine.
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Dr. Taleta Hompas

Rhonda Andrews