To prepare:
Review the Learning Resources on social support and community. Reflect on these concepts within the context of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma.
Review the video on creating an ecomap. Then, make an ecomap of your own, representing your social connections and support systems. Consider what the ecomap shows about your social connectedness. (Note that you will not share your actual ecomap with others, so it need not be polished.)
Explain how social support helps to prevent and/or mitigate the development of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma. Then, analyze your ecomap. What conclusions can you draw from this display of your social connections? How do you currently use this support, and how will you do so in the future? What opportunities might exist for increasing your social connectedness?