The nursing profession has often been called the backbone of the healthcare system because nurses are first in line when it comes to medical patient care. Therefore, nursing quality is one of the main factors affecting patient well-being. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are expected to possess the characteristics of caring and empathy towards their patients. However, when there is too much care for patients and too little for themselves, a negative effect on the caregiver's overall health can develop. Furthermore, nursing work is considered strenuous and demanding due to its need for specialization, complexity and need to manage emergency situations (Benoliel et al., 1990; Su, 1993). In fact, nurses can feel overworked, undervalued, frustrated and emotionally exhausted. These stressors that caregivers experience are described with different terms, including compassion fatigue, caregiver burnout, and other related issues. In this article, the nature of compassion fatigue and caregiver burnout are first defined and discussed. The symptoms and coping strategies for these phenomena are then explained. To fully understand the issue of compassion fatigue and caregiver burnout, it is necessary to discuss the definition of each and the distinction between both. First, burnout is described differently than depression or overwork. It is a process in which a person finds himself in a state of mental fatigue, empty and drained of energy (Espeland, 2006). According to Maslach (1982), individuals who interact with people on a daily basis are at risk of experiencing burnout, which is believed to be a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of... middle of paper.... ..Nursing Studies , 40, 807-827.Espeland, K. E. (2006). Overcoming Burnout: How to Revitalize Your Career. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 37(4), 178-184.Figley, C.R. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Addressing secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. New York: Brunner-Mazel.Joinson, C. (1992). Dealing with compassion fatigue. Nursing, 22(4), 116-121.Martin, B. (2002). Promote a balance between personal health and professional responsibility. Chart, 99(5), 4-5.Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: the cost of treatment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Portnoy, D. (2011). Burnout and compassion fatigue: watch out for the signs. Health Progress, 47-50.Su, H.R. (1993). The study of work stressors and stress response of clinical nurses. Nursing Research, 1(1), 83-93. Wright, S. (2003). Feel the burn. Nursing standard, 17(25), 25.