Recognizing Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma, and Burnout

This chapter explores three important sources of psychological morbidity in the medical field: compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout. The authors describe these concepts and examine how the process of delivering medical care has the potential to erode the ability to provide compassionate care over time, particularly when the occupational environment offers limited access to support, self-care, and trauma stewardship. The authors discuss strategies to reduce psychological morbidity and enhance resilience with the view that prevention, recognition, and intervention are possible with early adoption and sustained practice of wellness strategies.