🎥 Video 12B Transcript: Avoiding Burnout: Compassion Fatigue, Moral Distress, and Healthy Limits

Hi, I am Haley, a Christian Leaders Institute presenter.

Burnout in hospice chaplaincy often does not start with one big crisis. It starts with small, repeated overreach:

  • staying late too often

  • answering calls when you should rest

  • carrying family conflict home

  • feeling responsible for outcomes you cannot control

  • skipping your own soul care

Over time, the soul gets tired.

Scripture gives a warning and an invitation:

“Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.”
—Galatians 6:9 (WEB)

1) Three common threats: fatigue, moral distress, and compassion overload

Compassion fatigue can look like:

  • numbness

  • irritability

  • dread of visits

  • cynicism

  • emotional shutdown

Moral distress can look like:

  • feeling trapped between family wishes and policy

  • witnessing conflict and power struggles

  • hearing stories that haunt you

  • feeling you cannot do enough

Over-functioning can look like:

  • becoming the fixer

  • becoming the family mediator

  • becoming the “always available” chaplain

2) Healthy limits are holy

Limits are not selfish. Limits keep you faithful.

Healthy limit practices:

  • clear hours and availability

  • a short debrief after hard cases

  • referral to SW/RN for issues beyond your role

  • saying “I can’t” with kindness

  • stepping away from triangles and secret alliances

A strong boundary line:
“I care about you. I will support you. But I cannot carry this alone, and I cannot take over what the team is responsible for.”

3) What not to do

  • Do not treat exhaustion as a badge of honor.

  • Do not confuse urgency with importance.

  • Do not use ministry to avoid your own grief.

  • Do not isolate.

In hospice chaplaincy, your sustainability is part of your faithfulness.



Last modified: Tuesday, February 24, 2026, 5:42 AM