title: Understanding compassion fatigue: understanding compassion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A discussion of how the construct of compassion fatigue is understood in nursing.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Compassion fatigue is a topic commonly found in nursing literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  Discussion paper.
  
  
  METHODS
  The literature from 1992-2012 on compassion fatigue was examined. The literature from 1998-2012 on compassion was examined.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are multiple and diverse understandings and definitions of what compassion fatigue is. So much so, there are equally multiple, diverse and conflicting strategies to mitigate it. To understand better what compassion fatigue is, an examination of what compassion is was undertaken. Much is written that nurses are, or should be compassionate. Compassion is an archetype of nursing. However, there is little in the nursing literature defining what compassion is. Literature on compassion outside of nursing was then examined. There is a growing body of theory and research about compassion in other disciplines. None of the multiple definitions of nurse compassion fatigue match this understanding of compassion. The tools most often used to measure nurse compassion fatigue do not appear to measure the construct of compassion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To understand what nurse compassion fatigue is, we must first understand what nurse compassion is.
authors.affiliation: University of Western Ontario - Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ledoux
mesh_terms: D000068376:Compassion Fatigue; D006801:Humans
keywords: compassion; compassion fatigue; discussion paper; moral distress; nurse-patient therapeutic relationship; nursing