Residue and Resilience: Understanding and Addressing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Compassion Fatigue, Moral Injury, and Burnout in Emergency Medicine

Background

Emergency medicine providers frequently experience psychological distress, often labeled as “burnout.” However, this term is frequently used as a catch-all, obscuring key differences between burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These distinct conditions arise from different causes—ranging from individual trauma to organizational dysfunction—and require targeted interventions. Mislabeling them can lead to ineffective or even counterproductive solutions.

Discussion

PTSD is an acute condition stemming from identifiable traumatic events and is best addressed through individualized, evidence-based therapies. Compassion fatigue arises from chronic empathy-based stress and benefits from resilience training and self-compassion practices. Moral injury, by contrast, results from acute violations of one’s moral or ethical framework—often triggered by leadership or systemic failures—and requires organizational accountability and repair. Burnout is a chronic consequence of motivational incongruence between provider values and systemic pressures and cannot be resolved through individual-focused strategies alone. Addressing burnout and moral injury effectively requires leadership-driven changes, including ethical consistency, staffing support, and realignment of institutional priorities with provider values.

Conclusions

Properly naming and framing psychological distress is essential to developing appropriate, effective interventions. Interventions must align with the underlying causes of each condition. By distinguishing between these overlapping but distinct forms of distress, emergency medicine can move beyond one-size-fits-all wellness approaches and implement sustainable, compassionate, and systemic solutions that support provider well-being and improve patient care.