S02-8: How Do We Handle Compassion Fatigue Toward the Unvaccinated?

As COVID-19 vaccines become available to more age groups, will fatigue from the pandemic subside? Or will it create a greater disconnect between the healthcare workers struggling to provide consistent and compassionate care, and the people sick with COVID who need treatment due to resistance to protective health measures? Oftentimes, it can feel like you're doing all the right things -- getting vaccinated, wearing masks, social distancing -- while others are opting out, which can lead to compassion fatigue, a mental health condition that differs from burnout, and is hitting those on the front lines the hardest. On this week's episode, Jessica Gold, MD, MS, of the department of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, joins us to explain how healthcare professionals can move past the fatigue and care for themselves.