COURSE INFORMATION
This CE course explores the emotional and psychological challenges faced by helping professionals, with a focus on compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma. Participants will gain a deep understanding of the signs, symptoms, and impact of these phenomena, as well as evidence-based strategies for prevention and self-care. Through engaging textbooks, and a document, students will learn to recognize their own stress responses and develop resilience to sustain their important work caring for others.
Course Description:
Understanding Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma in Helping Professional recognizes that helping professionals, such as healthcare professionals, counselors, social workers, and advocates who are often exposed to the trauma and suffering of those they serve. This exposure can lead to compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, which threaten their well-being and effectiveness.
Students will first gain an understanding of Compassion Fatigue, its signs and symptoms by Dr. Mecca S. Carter-Marshall Ph.D., CCLC, CPLC, SCC-C. Emphasis is placed on practical strategies for self-care, boundary setting, and organizational support to promote resilience and sustainability in helping professionals. Then, they will study key concepts through textbooks including “Help for the Helper: Preventing Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma in an Ever-Changing World: Updated + Expanded” by: Babette Rothschild; “Healing Secondary Trauma: Proven Strategies for Caregivers and Professionals to Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Compassion Fatigue” by: Trudy Gilbert-Eliot PhD LMFT LCADC, and “Overcoming Compassion Fatigue: When Helping Hurts” by: Sharise M. Nance.
This CE course prepares helping professionals, including counselors, social workers, healthcare providers, and advocates, to recognize and address compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, enabling them to create safe, supportive, and sustainable environments that promote healing and resilience for both the helping professional and those they serve.
Course Code: CI 625. Contact hours of education = 50.
BOARD APPROVALS: The American Institute of Health Care Professionals is an Approved Provider for Continuing Education by the South Carolina Professional Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists and Psycho-Educational Specialists licensing board, Provider # 4637.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals is approved by the California Board of Registered Nurses, Provider number # CEP 15595 for 25 Contact Hours. Access information
This course, which is approved by the Florida State Board Of Nursing (CE Provider # 50-11975) also has the following Board of Nursing Approvals, for 50 contact hours of CE
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Arkansas Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the Georgia Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the South Carolina Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Professional Registered Nurses. CE Provider # 50-11975.
The American Institute of Health Care Professionals Inc: is a Rule Approved Provider of Continuing Education by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. CE Provider # 50-11975.
Course Refund & AIHCP Policies: access here
This is a guided, independent study CE Course. You are to study and progress at your own rate. There are no written assignments. It is recommended that you follow this process for completing the course:
Instructor/Course Author: Dr. Mecca S. Carter-Marshall, Ph.D., CCLC, CPLC, SCC-C
Link to Resume: access here
TIME FRAME: You are allotted two years from the date of enrollment, to complete all of the courses in this continuing education program. There are no set time-frames per course, other than the two year allotted time. If you do not complete the courses within the two-year time-frame, you will be removed from the course and an “incomplete” will be recorded for you in our records.
TEXTBOOKS: There are three (3) required textbooks for this course.
Book 1: “Help for the Helper: Preventing Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma in an Ever-Changing World: Updated + Expanded By: Babette Rothschild
- ISBN: 10: 1324030496
- ISBN: 13: 978-1324030492
Link to purchase on Amazon.com: Access here
Book 2: Healing Secondary Trauma: Proven Strategies for Caregivers and Professionals to Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Compassion Fatigue” By: Trudy Gilbert-Eliot PhD LMFT LCADC
- ISBN: 10: 1641527560
- ISBN: 13: 978-1641527569
Link to purchase on Amazon.com: Access here
Book 3: Overcoming Compassion Fatigue: When Helping Hurts By: Sharise M. Nance
- ISBN: 10: 1983445487
- ISBN: 13: 978-1983445484
Link to purchase on Amazon.com: Access here
Additional Assignments: This course contains additional assignments and assigned readings.
GRADING: You must achieve a passing score of at least 70% to complete this course and receive the 50 hours of awarded continuing education credit. There are no letter grades assigned. You will receive notice of your total % score. Those who score below the minimum of 70% will be contacted by the American Academy of Case Management and options for completing additional course work to achieve a passing score, will be presented.
ONLINE CLASSROOM RESOURCES AND TOOLS
* Examination Access: there is link to take you right to the online examination program where you can print out your examination and work with it. All examinations are formatted as “open book” tests. When you are ready, you can access the exam program at anytime and click in your responses to the questions. Full information is provided in the online classrooms.
* Student Resource Center: there is a link for access to a web page “Student Resource Center.” The Resource Center provides for easy access to all of our policies/procedures and additional information regarding applying for certification. We also have many links to many outside reference sites, such as online libraries that you may freely access.
* Online Evaluation: there is a link in the classroom where you may access the course evaluation. All students completing a course, must, without exception, complete the course evaluation.
* Faculty Access Information: you will have access to your instructor’s online resume/biography, as well as your instructor’s specific contact information.
* Additional Learning Materials: some faculty have prepared additional “readings” and /or brief lecture notes to enhance your experience. All of these are available in the online classrooms.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
UPON COMPLETION OF THIS COURSE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
- Define compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma and distinguish between the three.
- Identify common signs and symptoms associated with compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.
- Understand the psychological, emotional, and physiological impacts of ongoing exposure to trauma work.
- Recognize their own risk factors and vulnerabilities for developing compassion fatigue.
- Apply evidence-based strategies to prevent, manage, and recover from compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma.
- Develop personalized self-care and resilience-building plans based on current research and best practices.
COURSE CONTENT
- Due to existing and growing threats of war, increasing areas of civil unrest, the COVID-19 pandemic, financial collapse, natural disasters, and more, therapists and other helping professionals now often find themselves in a particularly tricky position: They are struggling to personally cope with traumas and massive stresses that are very similar to those experienced by their clients and others they serve. To address these unique challenges, the author developed this revised and expanded edition which now includes guidance for helping clients while maintaining therapists’ own safety and sanity in crisis situations, managing the usual stresses and challenges during normal times, and tips for dealing with trauma when that is not a therapist’s specialty.
- Healing Secondary Trauma is the gentle guide to help you identify symptoms, understand the feelings, and begin the healing process of your own secondary trauma. With interactive exercises and cutting-edge strategies for caregivers and professionals, it will help you address the daily realities of compassion fatigue, stress, and anxiety. Your journey to recovery from secondary
- Overcoming Compassion Fatigue: When Helping Hurts is a guide designed to shed light on the much-neglected topic of compassion fatigue that effects so many caregivers and helping professionals. This guide can be useful for social services and non-profit organizations committed to preventing compassion fatigue in direct line staff.