How healthcare providers combat compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue leads to fear or panic at the prospect of dealing with a patient's or client's trauma, Harris says, and dread of what the next patient encounter will bring. Vicarious trauma – a health provider experiencing patients' suffering as their own – is a risk factor. When a patient dies, the doctor or nurse takes on the family members' grief and raw pain as they try to help them cope. "And that suffering splashes up on you," he says. "You're exposed."