Jackson, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/26/2013 -- While it wasn’t a recognized affliction in years gone by, compassion fatigue and burnout is now acknowledged as a leading cause of nurses leaving their jobs or reducing the quality of care they provide. In an effort to reawaken all caregivers’ passion for caring, a veteran U.S. Nurse is delighted to announce her powerful new book.

Written by Vidette Todaro-Franceschi, ‘Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in Nursing: Enhancing Professional Quality of Life’ will serve as a saving grace to thousands of nurses at all levels.

Synopsis:

Compassion fatigue afflicts nurses working in all caring environments and has become a serious issue in health care institutions globally. Using poignant narrative the author outlines the complexity of issues feeding into these syndromes and presents a unique healing model designed to identify, treat and, where possible, avert compassion fatigue with holistic strategies and action plans that help cultivate a healthier, more satisfying work environment.

The volume addresses risk factors for and manifestations of compassion fatigue, burnout, and other related experiences such as PTS, death overload, collective trauma, and moral distress, and presents strategies to mediate and resolve these issues. The author emphasizes ways in which dissatisfaction influences the quality of patient care and calls for nurses to reinvent their work environments to favor compassion contentment. Case vignettes and exercises will help readers identify and alter patterns of negativity to reaffirm purpose in their professional lives.

Key Features:

- Describes the positive and negative contributors to professional quality of life

- Explores the multifaceted nature of compassion fatigue and burnout, in nursing

- Addresses the unique risk factors for nurses who work in critical care/ER, oncology, medical/surgical, and palliative care areas

- Offers holistic self and group strategies and action plans to help leadership and staff nurses overcome compassion fatigue and promote work satisfaction

- Addresses gaps in education which contribute to the development of compassion fatigue and burnout

- Designed for nurses in stressful health care environments, and nurse educators and students

As the author explains, her book’s release comes at a vital time.

“We have a global health care crisis on our hands. Nurses and other caregivers are suffering from compassion fatigue and burnout and their poor professional quality of life is negatively affecting the health care being provided to people,” says Todaro-Franceschi.

Since its release, the book has garnered a consistent string of rave reviews. For example, one nurse commented, “This book is a gift to anyone overworked, understaffed, bullied, tired, overwhelmed, hopeless, complacent or just plain unhappy. She addresses the complex issues surrounding the real challenges of working as a nurse today.”

ANA-Maine Journal notes, "The book is a powerful expression of the needs of all nurses, whatever their practice setting, with an easily applied method of reaching out to our co-workers and other healthcare professionals to improve our own lives, and, ultimately, the welfare of our patients."

The journal Advance for Nurses added, “Todaro-Franceschi offers nurses a handbook for holding on to the criticality of compassion and caring in nursing.”

‘Compassion Fatigue and Burnout in Nursing: Enhancing Professional Quality of Life’, published by Springer Publishing Company, is available now: http://amzn.to/13icvpV

About the Author: Vidette Todaro-Franceschi
Vidette Todaro-Franceschi, RN, PhD, FT, has been a nurse for 30 years and has worked in a variety of acute and long-term care settings in medicine, surgery, and critical care as staff nurse, administrator, clinical specialist, educator, and consultant. She is a tenured professor and coordinator of the Clinical Nurse Leader Graduate Program at Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College, and Doctoral Nursing Faculty at the Graduate Center, both of the City University of New York. A nurse scholar and educator in the areas of end of life/ palliative care, bioethics, and leadership, Dr. Todaro-Franceschi is the author of the book The Enigma of Energy: Where Science and Religion Converge along with many articles and several chapters. She has performed seminal research on ideas of energy, synchronicity, and bereavement healing, end of life care, and professional quality of life. A passionate speaker, she has presented nationally and internationally.