Compassion Fatigue: a Medical Student Experience

Adrenaline flowed as I did chest compressions for the first time and watched advanced life support protocols being activated. In 1974, psychologist Herbert Freudenberger defined the term burnout out of his own experience: “exhaustion, disillusionment and withdrawal resulting from intense devotion to a cause that failed to produce the expected result” [1]. Physicians experience this trauma secondarily and must also deal with a separate set of mental and emotional ramifications [2]. [...]self-harm and suicide are patient outcomes which students are likely to encounter during a psychiatry rotation.