Compassion fatigue: the known and unknown

Abstract

‘Compassion,’ known as a fundamental feature of the nursing profession, and considered a motivation to act to alleviate the suffering of others. Compassion fatigue is expressed as an adverse effect of helping individuals suffering fromtraumatic events or otherwise. However, compassion fatigue is defined differently in in recent nursing studies, and thedevelopmental process of compassion fatigue has been explained with the help of different models. Since compassionfatigue, a subject of interest for nurse researchers, lacks a clear understanding, it leads to a conceptual complexity inprevious studies. In this review, compassion, compassion fatigue, concepts related to compassion fatigue, and the development of compassion fatigue are discussed in the light of previous studies.