Beyond Burnout: What is Compassion Fatigue?

Been there, done that. I LOVE the high acuity, technology, and independence of the ICU. It was the unrealistic family members, physicians that didn't want to discuss the real prognosis, and ultimately what we "do" to chronically ill and debilitated people at the end-of-life that drove me to my breaking point. I took a long look at what I liked, what I didn't like, and what my options were. I moved from the ICU into surface transport (ambulance). Here I am still caring for critically ill patients, but for no longer than 3-4 hours. I am not able to form the "bond" that ultimately led to my emotional distress. I am so glad that I made the move. I LOVE my job now and and think of anything I'd rather do!!!

thank you. what a great article!

Excellent Article. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the excellent article. This topic hits many nurses right in the heart.

This has always been a problem and I agree that we all are struggling with creating and maintaining a boundary to keep us from having emotional distress. We just seem to have trouble finding out where that limit is. I've seen these among Army nurses in the ER in a deployed setting or in an outreach program in a third world country. There are times where we have to face the reality that we cannot 'fix' everything and that we should remember to 'fix' ourselves too. I hope every nursing program has something like this to remind prospective students to this reality and its implications in nursing care. Thank you for this article.

This was a great article. Thank You.

Thanks, this was a very good article. It defined a few terms for me that I had heard used interchangeably, which should not have been. I appreciate it!

love this article. unfortunately, many of us minimize the importance of self-care until it's obvious that we're struggling...and by that point, it's often too late.

At one point in my early career, I took care of 7 terminal patients in a row over the course of bout 6 months. This was before hospice was widely available, so I saw a lot of struggle and suffering of both patients and families at point of death.For instance a 12 y.o. girl with rampant cancer who was in awful pain and actually apologized to her nurses when they would have to reposition her, because she saw how terrible they felt for increasing her pain during the procedure! She died on Easter morning at sunrise.A man with several respiratory dx. who had more than a few crises with trying to breathe; all we knew to do at the time was turn him on his side to see if that would ease him. It took him one entire eight hour evening shift to finally pass. Three family members and one nurse (me) in his room (at home) trying to catch our collective breath FOR him, hovering on the edge of death WITH him. We all cried with relief when he ceased his efforts and died. It was tremendously stressful for all involved.After that, I felt like I had been stripped raw and had nothing left to give.I found a part-time job with rehabbing injured and baby wildlife. Though the survival rate for the critters was a paltry 20%, somehow the successes felt triumphant. Releasing them back to the wild was a cause for celebration, and very healing for me.Several years later I was able to return to work as a nurse, feeling refreshed and no longer as vulnerable. I got a job at a small hospital as a medication nurse on an ortho/spinal-cord post-op unit. The staff was superior and as staffing at the time was ALWAYS sufficient, with very reasonable ratios. We actually could be professionals AND have a lot of FUN with each other.Since the advent of hospice I no longer dread working with what had previously been referred to as 'terminal cases', and feel honored to attend to a dying patient and their family.