End-of-Life Care
6th Annual Gulf-Atlantic Veterinary Conference
Dani McVety, DVM
CEO/Co-Founder
Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice
The term “compassion fatigue” is often overused in the profession of veterinary medicine, when most often what we really struggle with in our profession is not as much compassion fatigue but actually ethical fatigue. Typically, it is not the over-demand of compassion that leads veterinarians to feeling fatigued. Rather, it is the immense responsibility to make the "right" decision (many of them ethically based) within the boundaries of someone else’s illogical values or unreasonable budgets. Here, we will explore the differences between compassion fatigue and ethical fatigue.