Compassion fatigue in the NHS or burnout? | Letter

Your article raises important issues about the mental wellbeing of those working in the NHS (seven in 10 GPs in Britain suffer from compassion fatigue, study finds, January 2). But we need to be careful with terms like “compassion fatigue.” Our research found that it is not staff compassion that is fatigued – they would like to provide better services – but that they are burned out and angry. This is not caused by the suffering of their patients, but by the stress of working in poorly managed, poorly supported and overly demanding healthcare systems. This is clarified at the end of the article.

Thus, it is important to identify the motivations behind mental health problems among clinical staff. Far from being compassion fatigue, it’s quite the opposite. It wants to do so much more, making people feel like they are letting their patients down.

It is rare for doctors to feel fatigued by suffering; rather, it is the excessive and unrealistic expectations of oneself and others to alleviate suffering in such restrictive contexts that create a sense of exhaustion and failure.
Professor Paul Gilbert
College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby