Editorial

Welcome to our sixth edition of Spotlight, which looks at the subject of compassion, what good compassion looks like, and how as care givers and pastoral workers we can try to avoid burnout.

Spotlight is a regular publication of CMF, written by and for Christian nurses and midwives. We aim to bring together personal, professional and biblical perspectives to strengthen, inform and inspire one another as we seek to combine our faith and our vocation.

Compassion is central to good care. It is the ability to feel with the other person who is in pain, and to act upon that shared feeling so as to diminish the other person’s suffering. In this magazine, Steve Fouch writes about what good compassionate care looks like.

However, faced with too many people in need over a period of time, if we don’t manage to get refreshed and resourced ourselves, we become in danger of compassion fatigue, or burnout. There is also an article about this, with symptoms of what this is so we can be aware if we’re slipping into it.

We trust and pray that as you read this, God will use something in it to encourage you in your caring role, and to refresh your soul.

On behalf of the CMF team,

Pippa & Steve

Pippa Peppiatt, CMF Head of Nursing

Pippa trained as a nurse. She has planted a church for students with her husband, set up a charity for street kids in Uganda, and has been a Friends International Student Worker.

 

Steve Fouch, CMF Connections Manager

Steve worked in community nursing in South London, before working for several years with a Christian HIV and AIDS home care team in the city.