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Recognizing Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma, and Burnout

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Humanism and Resilience in Residency Training

Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Lauren Forrest & Amanda Ritsma

  2. Department of Psychiatry, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Mariam Abdurrahman

Authors
  1. Lauren Forrest
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  2. Mariam Abdurrahman
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  3. Amanda Ritsma
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lauren Forrest .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Ana Hategan

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Karen Saperson

  3. McMaster Children’s Hospital, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Sheila Harms

  4. Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Department of Family Medicine, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Heather Waters

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Forrest, L., Abdurrahman, M., Ritsma, A. (2020). Recognizing Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Trauma, and Burnout. In: Hategan, A., Saperson, K., Harms, S., Waters, H. (eds) Humanism and Resilience in Residency Training. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45627-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45627-6_10

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