Healthcare workers are succumbing to "compassion fatigue" after seeing people suffer and die of cancer or AIDS. The syndrome can lead to anxiety, cynicism, chronic tiredness, irritability and problem drinking, according to a study in the Journal of Health Psychology.

Compassion fatigue "is very common," Dr. Sean O'Mahony, medical director of palliative care at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, told Health Day News. "As health care gets busier and busier, and more complex with technological advances, that's higher volumes of very sick patients for, unfortunately, shorter periods of time. I think it's very easy to try to pull back from the emotional impact of seeing other people suffering."

"You become a doctor or a nurse because want to save people or help people. Nowhere along the way does anyone tell you that doing good might be [end-of-life] hospice treatment, instead of the next best drug trial," says Dr Caroline Carney Doebbeling, a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute and associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

"We need to train and culture young physicians that death is a natural part of all of this. It doesn't mean that someone failed. It's getting to a point where it's as acceptable to progress in a path toward a peaceful death as opposed to, 'I'm going to fight to every last inch.' Because you do get set up to think you've failed." ~ Health Day News, Apr 10