Stress, Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Mental Health in Hospice Workers in Minnesota
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Working in hospice care is a highly challenging yet rewarding profession. However, the challenges of working with dying patients and their families can overwhelm even the most highly dedicated professional, leading to burnout, compassion fatigue, anxiety, and depression. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to better understand how stress affects the mental health of hospice workers in terms of burnout and compassion fatigue and how they cope with these issues. METHODS: Data for this study are from Compassion Fatigue and You, a cross-sectional survey of hospice staff from across Minnesota. We surveyed 547 hospice workers throughout Minnesota to better understand the overall mental health of staff, including levels of stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue, and how they cope with these issues. The study was conducted in 2008 and 2009 through a private, not-for-profit research institute affiliated with a large Midwestern health plan. RESULTS: Hospice staff reported high levels of stress, with a small but significant proportion reporting moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Staff reported managing their stress through physical activity and social support, and they suggested that more opportunities to connect with coworkers and to exercise could help decrease staff burnout. CONCLUSIONS: Poor mental health places staff at risk for burnout and likely contributes to staff leaving hospice care; this is a critical issue as the profession attempts to attract new staff to meet the expanding demands for hospice care.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Inherent stressors pertaining to work in palliative care can impact the health and well-being of practitioners, leading to stress, burnout, psychological morbidity and compassion fatigue.
“Yet, inherent stressors pertaining to the work in this field, can impact the health and well-being of practitioners leading to stress, burnout, psychological morbidity and compassion fatigue [3–5].”
Cites
A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder: The GAD-7
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092 · Cited by 31,765 · see citing works
The PHQ-8 as a measure of current depression in the general population
Kroenke, K., Strine, T. W., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Berry, J. T., & Mokdad, A. H. (2009) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2008.06.026 · Cited by 5,121 · see citing works
Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires
McDowell, I., & Newell, C. (1987) · Cited by 4,207 · see citing works
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2010) · General Hospital Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2010.03.006 · Cited by 4,057 · see citing works
McDowell, I. (2006) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165678.001.0001 · Cited by 2,095 · see citing works
User’s manual for the SF-12v2 health survey
Ware, J., Kosinski, M., Bowker, D., Gandek, B., Ware, J. E., & Turner‐Bowker, D. M. (2002) · Cited by 1,085 · see citing works
Validity of a single-item measure of stress symptoms
Elo, A.-L., Leppänen, A., & Jahkola, A. (2003) · Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health · doi:10.5271/sjweh.752 · Cited by 900 · see citing works
Kearney, M. K., Weininger, R. B., Vachon, M. L. S., Harrison, R. L., & Mount, B. M. (2009) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2009.352 · Cited by 440 · see citing works
Occupational stressors and coping as determinants of burnout in female hospice nurses
Payne, N. (2001) · Journal of Advanced Nursing · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01677.x · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Ablett, J. R., & Jones, R. S. P. (2007) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.1130 · Cited by 317 · see citing works
Alkema, K., Linton, J. M., & Davies, R. S. (2008) · Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care · doi:10.1080/15524250802353934 · Cited by 310 · see citing works
Slocum-Gori, S., Hemsworth, D., Chan, W. W., Carson, A., & Kazanjian, A. (2013) · Palliative Medicine · doi:10.1177/0269216311431311 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Burnout in palliative care: A systematic review
Pereira, S. M., Fonseca, A. M., & Carvalho, A. S. (2011) · Nursing Ethics · doi:10.1177/0969733011398092 · Cited by 276 · see citing works
Staff stress in hospice/palliative care: a review
Vachon, M. L. (1995) · Palliative Medicine · doi:10.1177/026921639500900202 · Cited by 253 · see citing works
Burnout and compassion fatigue among hospice caregivers
Keidel, G. C. (2002) · American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® · doi:10.1177/104990910201900312 · Cited by 191 · see citing works
Showalter, S. E. (2010) · American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® · doi:10.1177/1049909109354096 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Stress, burnout and job satisfaction in rural psychiatric nurses: A Victorian study
Pinikahana, J., & Happell, B. (2004) · Australian Journal of Rural Health · doi:10.1111/j.1440-1854.2004.00572.x · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Steiner, A., Raube, K., Stuck, A. E., Aronow, H. U., Draper, D., Rubenstein, L. Z., & Beck, J. C. (1996) · The Gerontologist · doi:10.1093/geront/36.1.54 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
What is it so stressful about caring for a dying patient? A qualitative study of nurses’ experiences
Peterson, J. L., Johnson, M. A., Halvorsen, B., Apmann, L., Chang, P.-C., Kershek, S., Scherr, C., Ogi, M., & Pincon, D. (2010) · International Journal of Palliative Nursing · doi:10.12968/ijpn.2010.16.4.47784 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Stressors experienced by nurses providing end-of-life palliative care in the intensive care unit.
Gélinas, C., Fillion, L., Robitaille, M.-A., et al. (2012) · PubMed · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Connor, K. M., Vaishnavi, S., Davidson, J. R. T., et al. (2007) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2006.11.008 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Tunnah, K., Jones, A., & Johnstone, R. (2012) · International Journal of Palliative Nursing · doi:10.12968/ijpn.2012.18.6.283 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Occupational stress in hospice care: Causes and coping strategies
Dean, R. A. K. (1998) · American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® · doi:10.1177/104990919801500309 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Meier, D. E., & Beresford, L. (2006) · Journal of Palliative Medicine · doi:10.1089/jpm.2006.9.1045 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
An investigation into the perceived stressors for staff working in the hospice service
Hackett, A., & Palmer, S. (2010) · International Journal of Palliative Nursing · doi:10.12968/ijpn.2010.16.6.48833 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Hospices as Providers of Total Care in One Western State
Sontag, M.-A. (1996) · The Hospice Journal · doi:10.1080/0742-969x.1996.11882828 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Palliative care, burnout, and the pursuit of happiness
Baumrucker, S. J. (2002) · American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® · doi:10.1177/104990910201900303 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Hospices as Providers of Total Care in One Western State
Sontag, M.-A. (1996) · The Hospice Journal · doi:10.1300/j011v11n03_05 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Burnout–Depression Overlap: A Review
Bianchi, R., Schonfeld, I. S., & Laurent, E. (2015) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2015.01.004 · Cited by 868 · see citing works
Compassion fatigue in healthcare providers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Cavanagh, N., Cockett, G., Heinrich, C., Doig, L., Fiest, K., Guichon, J. R., Page, S., Mitchell, I., & Doig, C. J. (2020) · Nursing Ethics · doi:10.1177/0969733019889400 · Cited by 307 · see citing works
Rauvola, R. S., Vega, D. M., & Lavigne, K. N. (2019) · Occupational Health Science · doi:10.1007/s41542-019-00045-1 · Cited by 225 · see citing works
Orellana-Rios, C. L., Radbruch, L., Kern, M., Regel, Y. U., Anton, A., Sinclair, S., & Schmidt, S. (2018) · BMC Palliative Care · doi:10.1186/s12904-017-0219-7 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Dijxhoorn, A.-F. Q., Brom, L., van der Linden, Y. M., Leget, C., & Raijmakers, N. J. (2021) · Palliative Medicine · doi:10.1177/0269216320956825 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
The Feasibility and Effectiveness of Online Guided Imagery Training for Health Professionals
Rao, N., & Kemper, K. J. (2017) · Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine · doi:10.1177/2156587216631903 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
- Authors
- Whitebird, R. R., Asche, S. E., Thompson, G. L., Rossom, R., & Heinrich, R.
- Affiliations
- HealthPartners (US)
- Allina Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Whitebird, Robin R.
- Venue
- Journal of Palliative Medicine
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-12
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1534-1539
- ISSN
- 1096-6218 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7740
- OpenAlex
- W1862532608
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 9.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Palliative Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UST Research Online (University of St. Thomas - Minnesota) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
- Keywords
- hospice staff, burnout, compassion fatigue, occupational stress, mental health, depression, anxiety, coping strategies, social support, physical activity, employee retention, Minnesota
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Burnout, Professional, Cross-Sectional Studies, Empathy, Mental Fatigue, Female, Health Personnel, Hospices, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Minnesota, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
