The processes leading to staff burnout are poorly understood, due to the very term "burnout." It is a static term which refers explicitly to the end-stage or outcome of a process, rather than to the process itself. Grief theory is an attempt to explore the process of adaptation to high stress work, a process which, through some inadequacy or disorder, too often eventuates in burnout. Concepts of grieving seem suited to this purpose because (a) grief has undergone transformation from a static term to a process term in response to theoretical efforts of the last generation, and (b) burnout entails considerable loss and is, in part, a response to loss. Kavenaugh's concept of the grieving process is used as a framework for a brief description of adaptation to the stresses of professional work with dying person and their families.