Compassion Fatigue in Helping Professions: A Scoping Literature Review

Course overview

Course Description: This course reviews a scoping literature review of 42 studies examining compassion fatigue across helping professions such as nursing, medicine, psychotherapy, counseling, education, and social work. This course is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop or increase their knowledge of the conceptualization of compassion fatigue, the personal and work-related factors that predict it, and the state of research development on this topic across professions. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. The course traces the historical development of the compassion fatigue construct, reviews the Compassion Fatigue Model and its grounding in Conservation of Resources theory, examines predictor factors such as resilience, mindfulness, and workload, and discusses the reviews methodology, cross-profession findings, and limitations, including ongoing questions about the constructs validity. Authors: Noor, Suryana, Kamarudin, Naidu, Kamsani, & Govindasamy Learning Objectives: This course will provide a professional with detailed information about the conceptualization, predictors, and research development of compassion fatigue in helping professions. Specifically, the practitioner will: 1. Describe the conceptualization and historical development of compassion fatigue as a construct in helping professions. 2. Identify the personal and work-related factors associated with compassion fatigue. 3. Discuss the reviews methodology, its findings on research development across professions, and its limitations. Citation: Noor, A. M., Suryana, D., Kamarudin, E. M. E., Naidu, N. B. M., Kamsani, S. R., & Govindasamy, P. (2025). Compassion fatigue in helping professions: A scoping literature review. BMC Psychology, 13, 349. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01869-5