Compassion Fatigue and Information Behavior

Compassion fatigue is a serious condition impacting health, quality of life, professional well-being, and work productivity. It manifests in many professional sectors, especially those dealing with people in vulnerable positions such as in healthcare, law enforcement, spiritual settings and social work. Related terms — sometimes used interchangeably — include burnout, secondary traumatization and vicarious traumatization.  Very little research dealing explicitly with information behavior and compassion fatigue has been reported.

This presentation will focus on the importance of information in dealing with compassion fatigue, including findings from a content analysis of a question and answer (Q&A) site on that topic. In particular, the importance of awareness, active information seeking and use, and information avoidance, will be discussed.