Identifying and Addressing Compassion Fatigue to Improve Well-Being

Medical imaging professionals cope with stressful and traumatic issues every day in the workplace. Managing high workloads, coordinating with other departments, adjusting factors or approaches, dealing with faulty equipment, and overcoming technology issues are typical daily stressors. Additional stressors such as identifying, responding to, and monitoring emergencies; evaluating the patient's physical, emotional, and mental status; and meeting the needs of the patient and the patient's family are among many other duties performed while providing optimal patient care as part of the workload. Although stress, and coping with it, is not new to imaging professionals, COVID-19 increased the magnitude.