Vicarious Trauma and Professional Caregiver Stress: Occupational Hazards or Powerful Teachers?

F acing crisis, multiple loss, and sadness is not an abstract experience for professional caregivers. Every time professional caregivers enter into a therapeutic relationship, they put themselves at risk for exposure to death, emergencies, and trauma. Being intimately involved in situations where patients or clients are facing crises takes a toll over the short and long term in the careers and personal lives of those who seek to support others. Care giving and guiding individuals and their families and friends through change, transition, and loss does not occur without having an impact on the professional. This experience of responding to ongoing and repetitive strains related to professional care giving has been given a number of names including burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and professional caregiver stress.