Background: When confronted with human suffering and death, health professionals may experience compassion fatigue. The aim was to study how to prevent compassion fatigue when caring spiritually for patients.
Method: The study took place with patients and staff at two hospices in Denmark. The design included 12 individual interviews with patients and nine focus group interviews with the staff, six of these after participation in workshops on spiritual care.
Results: Compassion fatigue was a challenge for hospice staff. Providing spiritual care to dying patients revealed a ‘double vulnerability’, for which the staff needed to prepare.
Conclusion: By participating in workshops and reflecting with close colleagues, the staff came to the conclusion that they needed a shared professional language for spiritual care and collegial spiritual care to prevent compassion fatigue. The study illustrates the importance of establishing supportive relationships among the staff to enable them to practice and receive spiritual care.