[Burnout of care-givers]

The Author, Psychiatrist, ascertains that the topic wear of nursing personnel is often considered an argument of minor importance in comparison to the suffering of cared people. Suffering and wear that can be felt in caring, especially for long periods, critical or terminal patients, becomes in common opinion a weakness, and the problem is disregarded, with the effort to concentrate energies on the work to be done, in hushing of emotions, avoiding questions so that the work can be carried on. The burn-out phenomenon, professional break-down, present also in other professional categories (teachers, social assistants, clergy) beyond health professions, is analysed in its several stages and the A. draws up a list of the different causes and indicates possible remedies. Caring people's breakdown, he concludes, has certainly an irreducible dimension that cannot be avoided. But this must not be an "alibi" for not adopting all possible preventive measures.