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| Authors, year | Population | Purpose | Definition of concepts and key terms |
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| Joinson, 1992 | Nurses | Description of compassion fatigue, how to recognize it, and how to prevent it | Compassion fatigue: unique form of burnout linked to caregiving professionals, can be emotionally devastating, causes loss of ability to cope, anger, apathy, depression, and ineffectiveness |
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| Figley, 2002 | Psychotherapists | To discuss compassion fatigue as experienced by psychotherapists and contrast the concept with burnout and countertransference | Secondary traumatic stress: the natural behaviors and emotions that arise from caring for someone suffering from a traumatizing event |
| Compassion fatigue: tension and anxiety that occurs from reexperiencing traumatic events with the patient, sense of helplessness and confusion, isolation from support |
| Burnout: physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that occurs from continuous emotionally demanding encounters |
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| Keidel, 2002 | Hospice caregivers | To discuss how burnout affects hospice caregivers and to examine causes of stress | Burnout: “syndrome of physical exhaustion including a negative self-concept, negative job attitude, and loss of concern and feeling for patients” |
| Compassion fatigue: form of burnout affecting people in caregiving professions, less abrasive term than burnout |
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| Huggard, 2003 | Physicians | To shed light on the subject of compassion fatigue in medical education programs | Empathy: validating the client’s world through understanding the “story behind the story” |
| Compassion fatigue: based on Figley’s definition, a sudden stress response with symptoms disconnected from the real cause and being empathic places someone at risk |
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| McHolm, 2006 | Nurses | To use God and scriptures to examine what can be done for nurses experiencing compassion fatigue and to see how compassion fatigue is different than burnout | Compassion: being aware of the suffering of another and the strong desire to alleviate the suffering |
| Compassion fatigue: the emotional, social, and spiritual exhaustion that causes a decline in the desire, ability, and energy to feel and care for others, lost ability to experience satisfaction and joy in profession and personal life |
| Burnout: becoming less empathic to patients and displaying negative behaviors to coworkers, “candle that goes out because the wax has been used up” |
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| Sabo, 2006 | Nurses | To examine the effects that caring has on nurses’ health | Compassion: “experience of feeling with another while recognizing that the feelings of one are not the same as another” |
| Empathy: awareness of a patient’s feelings, sharing this with the patient, and the patient’s awareness that the nurse feels this |
| Compassion fatigue: the acute onset of a combination of secondary traumatic stress and burnout |
| Burnout: a gradual negative change in professional attitude to job strain |
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| Schulz, et al., 2007 | Family caregivers | To discuss the relationship between patient suffering and caregiver compassion | Suffering: bearing or undergoing of pain, distress, or tribulation (Oxford English Dictionary, 1989) |
| Compassion: sense of shared suffering accompanied by a desire to relieve the suffering |
| Compassion fatigue: the stress, strain, and wariness that arises from caring for a person suffering from a medical or psychological problem |
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Adams et al., 2008 | Social workers | To investigate the differences between secondary traumatic stress and job burnout and to see if secondary trauma can predict psychological distress | Compassion fatigue: a formal caregiver’s inability or disinterest in being empathic or sharing the suffering of clients |
| Burnout: the emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that arises from prolonged exposure to demanding interpersonal relationship and stressful environments |
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| Marr, 2009 | Physicians | A personal reflection | Compassion: the suffering with the sufferer that occurs in the moment because of the relationship between beings; what we do, not who we are |
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Robins et al., 2009 | Physicians, nurses, mental health practitioners, allied health practitioners | To examine the effect providing care has on health care workers and trauma workers, and to examine the relationship between secondary traumatic stress, empathy, spirituality, and coping | Compassion fatigue: the symptoms and emotional responses the occur from caring for traumatized persons, same as secondary traumatic stress and vicarious traumatization |
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Ward-Griffin et al., 2011 | Nurse-daughters caring for elderly parents | To examine compassion fatigue in nurse-daughter caregivers and identify the effect of the environment on compassion fatigue | Compassion fatigue: distinct from burnout, a condition affecting physical, emotional, and social health and well-being, “living on the edge” where expectations exceed resources |
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