Compassion fatigue occurs when caregivers are not able to provide care and nurturing for their patients who are experiencing emotional and physical pain. Caregivers become hopeless and their quality of life suffers. There is emotional detachment and a general loss of meaning, and some caregivers may leave the field. Patient care can be affected in a bad way.

Compassion fatigue can worsen and grow. It can also become chronic and progress to burnout.

Burnout is a situation where caregivers experience mental and physical exhaustion, strong ineffectiveness, and a disbelief that anything will ever improve. Exposure to primary and secondary trauma can lead to a condition in which a caregiver feels mentally unattached from themselves – depersonalization.

Secondary trauma, also called vicarious traumatization, is like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is triggered by watching others experience a trauma or providing care to those people. A situation that may lead to this is end-of-life care and deaths. Caregivers may not have the ability or motivation to put their mental situation into words following this trauma and therefore may not seek out help. Unfortunately, they may have trouble sleeping, negative or scary thoughts that might not get out of their heads, and awareness that they too will die. There is a greater chance for suicidality and other mental health issues.

Bereavement overload is a situation when traumatic deaths and other losses occur back-to-back or at the same time. Caregivers involved may have a hard time working through their losses and are unable to mourn each loss before another occurs. There is little time to work out their feelings and grief piles up. If caregivers are not prepared for bereavement situations, they are more likely to experience bereavement overload.

It can be hard to manage emotions after a death if a patient dealt with great suffering and pain, and this can be worsened if the death is disenfranchised which takes away social support from people who are grieving.