Case Study
Care Home
BACKGROUND
CHALLENGES
High staff turnover
High sickness rates
Complaints
Staff emotionally impacted by role
We were asked to deliver our training to a Care Home who were experiencing some difficulties within the team. They had relatively high sickness rates and a high staff turnover. They were very worried about their team as they were beginning to demonstrate many of the symptoms of Compassion Fatigue and this was affecting the care they were delivering and morale. We delivered three 6-hour training workshops on Compassion Fatigue to a total of 35 learners including nursing and care staff, catering and other support team members.
Before the training, all staff were given a pre-course questionnaire designed to assess their level of Compassion Fatigue.
PRE COURSE
FEEDBACK
“Fantastic training which will make a huge difference to me and everyone in the team”
RESULTS
Increased retention
Decreased sickness
Less complaints
Increased morale
Improvements to wellbeing support
The questionnaire identified that staff were experiencing the emotional impact of their roles, often feeling anxious, irritable, withdrawn or emotionally shut down. The results also highlighted that staff were regularly working longer hours than they were being paid for, felt guilty if they were off sick and some were already considering finding other employment.
POST COURSE
The immediate feedback from the training was very positive with learners commenting that the content was relevant and impactful.
They felt they were given proactive tools and strategies to use to care for their emotional well-being as well as the knowledge that what they were feeling was normal.
The post-course questionnaire results demonstrate that before the training very few learners knew about Compassion Fatigue or Vicarious trauma, but most of them recognised the symptoms in themselves and their colleagues.
All the staff who attended said that the training was a positive experience for them and their team and has helped them cope better with their work. Their manager has implemented some of the suggestions that they made during the days which has improved morale. They all felt that the training had been a positive initiative and that ongoing training would be beneficial.