Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Moral Injury in Members of the Perinatal Team

The learner will be able to:

• Understand the causes of burnout for perinatal care providers.
• Understand the causes of compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress is perinatal care providers.
• Understand posttraumatic growth.
• Describe steps to recovery from burnout and secondary traumatic stress/compassion fatigue.

• Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Moral Injury defined.
• Causes and symptoms of burnout.
• Solutions for resolving burnout.
• Compassion Fatigue as secondary trauma.
• Events that cause compassion fatigue.
• Moral injury is not just about combat situations.
• Moral injury and spiritual crisis.
• Solutions for Compassion Fatigue and Moral Injury.
• Resources.

Working in perinatal care can be deeply rewarding. It can also lead to job-related burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and moral injury. Secondary traumatic stress (compassion fatigue), or moral injury, can occur when witnessing traumatic events in the workplace. This can occur when witnessing infant death or traumatic births, or when there is too much work, or work that doesn’t seem to make a difference, and little institutional support. Unfortunately, this is remarkably common among caregivers for perinatal women. Burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury can lead to physical and mental health sequelae for care providers and have a negative effect on the care they provider. Self-care is essential for being able to provide care to others. In this presentation, participants will learn about the causes and consequences of burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury. Fortunately, there is hope for recovery. Participants will learn some specific strategies for integrating self-care into their care for others.

The content in this module is re-evaluated every three years in accordance with ANCC criteria. This content will be re-evaluated and updated on or before November 1, 2024.