Compassion fatigue (CF) is a condition that can affect one's physical, emotional, and social well-being. CF can exist or be misunderstood as burnout, defined as the "inability to cope with job stress, displays symptoms such as emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal and professional accomplishments". The term Secondary Traumatic stress has been used within the literature to describe nurses' exposure to the traumatic situations of patients and is often used interchangeably with compassion fatigue but is contrasted by compassion satisfaction (CS): the pleasure that nurses derive from the ability to perform work well. Slatten et al., described compassion fatigue as a natural consequence of nursing: therefore, prevention of exposure should not be the focus of any intervention. The literature review has identified that nurses should be educated about risk factors and coping strategies to combat compassion fatigue.