Understanding Compassion Fatigue: Keys for the Caring Veterinary Healthcare Team

Have you ever wondered, “Do I care too much?” Do you leave the hospital or clinic exhausted and carrying the burden of the daily office stresses coupled with a tiring sense of emotional connection to your patients, your clients, and staff? Veterinary medicine has been well recognized as one of the most caring of all professions. This responsibility ot care for both the client and the patient, in combination with changes that we are presently experiencing in the veterinary world, has led us to a place where we experience the “cost” of this care. The “cost of caring,” as termed by Charles Figley, is a well-defined condition in the human medical literature known as “compassion fatigue.”¹ Veterinarians are likely at great risk to experience this condition as a result of the nature of the work we do, the circumstances of our workplace, and the very characteristics that make us...