Compassion Fatigue: You Deserve the Care You Give

Compassion fatigue is a fight healthcare workers are fighting most days, oftentimes without realizing it. After the 12 hour shifts (that really turn into 15 hour shifts), or seeing a patient you have taken care of for 2 weeks continue to struggle with the same pain they came in to get treated with no relief in sight, or the night with 20 calls that did not go anywhere close to the way they needed regardless of the number of compressions, medications, or hope given in the back of the cramped ambulance, healthcare providers are exhausted. 

For too long there has been an expectation that you leave your work strain at those sliding glass doors and never carry it through to your day-to-day existence, but that feels impossible when you give so much of yourself to healing others. 

Provider Burnout

Every day, healthcare workers pour themselves into other people by listening, healing, and staying strong even when everything around them feels shattered. But over time, that emotional labor takes a toll. What many don't realize (or feel they aren’t allowed to admit) is that they're experiencing something real, something valid, and something deeply human: compassion fatigue. 

Compassion fatigue is more than just being tired; it is a deep emotional and physical erosion that happens when you give so much of yourself that there is nothing left.

It can look like:

• Irritability
• Numbness
• sleep deprivation
• chronic fatigue
• difficulty focusing 
• losing empathy for the people you take care of, or 
• questioning the meaning of the work you were once immensely passionate toward. 

And yet, in healthcare, asking for help often feels taboo since you are expected to give and give without complaint because it is a field that demands passion to pursue. 

Receiving help, specifically through therapy, is not a sign that you are broken but a commitment to staying whole. Maybe staying whole so that you are able to recommit yourself to the work you know you can still love or maybe becoming whole to find the first step toward your new calling. 

why therapy for healthcare providers?

Therapy provides a space where you can finally be the one receiving care, without the expectations that you have to be compassionate to anyone but yourself. Some in healthcare shy away from therapy because they are tired of explaining the traumas they have seen again or having to explain details of procedures that are not relevant to their healing. But therapy is specifically done to create a space for you to talk about what is important to you and not to satisfy the curiosity of the therapist. It’s a safe space where you don’t have to provide or perform. 

Many healthcare workers don’t realize they are burned out until their symptoms feel unmanageable. Therapy gives language to your experience; it can help you name burnout before it consumes you. Healthcare is a calling, yes, but it is also a job – and jobs should not cost you your mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing. You are not selfish for needing support. You are not weak for feeling the weight of your work, YOU ARE HUMAN.

I have years of experience working in hospitals, and I know how rewarding but exhausting that work can be. That work has helped inform some of my counseling specialties, including helping people manage the symptoms of anxiety, trauma, and anger. If you’re ready to reach out and connect with a therapist who can truly empathize and provide the level of care and respect you need, book a session with me at Lifeologie Counseling Fort Worth, Texas at (817) 870-1087. 

You deserve the care you give.