Julie Givens RN, BSN and Cynthia Bain MSN, RN, CNE

The Cost of Caring

Tags: caregiver caring Case Study cost stress students

Nurses care for individuals when they are most vulnerable and often serve as emotional outlets. It is this deep caring that can lead to nurses becoming burnt out or developing vicarious traumatization, secondary traumatic stress, or compassion fatigue. Awareness of these phenomena and methods of prevention needs to be increased throughout the profession. This includes teaching nursing students as they begin having interactions with patients in the clinical setting.