Combat Compassion Fatigue with Vet Wrap Art Therapy

Too often we underestimate the power of the smallest act of caring.

- Leo Buscaglia

Sitting around a table crafting in our community room with co-workers is a little thing that many of us look forward to each month. At our staff art therapy sessions we make cool stuff. Each month we look forward to a new project. We get a chance to shift gears and have fun, while reducing stress and get reenergized – important elements in combating compassion fatigue.

Our most recent art project had a trickle-down effect of good feelings, and there is no end in sight. You can do this at your clinic too! We made a variety of bright, whimsical, funny and charming patches using colorful roles of vet wrap. We pre-made the patches to decorate patient’s bandages before sending them home. Here are some pictures from our staff art binder (we keep this in our ER where we do most of our patient bandaging):

These little patches make us smile while we are creating them. They make our co-workers smile when they choose one to place on a patient and they make the family of the patient feel personally cared for when they see this small personal touch. It feels wonderful to be the catalyst that activates a positive note to someone’s day. When you perform an act of kindheartedness with no need for reward, it creates a positive cycle of good feelings.