Table 4 Summary of included literature of research on compassion fatigue by year of publication
From: Compassion fatigue in helping professions: a scoping literature review
Author(s) | Country | Method | Population | Measure | Result | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Healthcare | ||||||
Potter, P Deshields, T Divanbeigi, J, Julie, C Norris, L Olsen, S (2010) [15] | United States | Descriptive, cross-sectional survey | 153 healthcare providers included RNs, medical assistants, and radiology technicians | ProQOL R-IV | Average compassion statisfaction 38.3 (SD = 7.2) Average burnout 21.5 (SD = 6.4) Average compassion fatigue 15.2 (SD = 6.6) | Staff working in the inpatient nursing unit had the highest percentage of compassion fatigue risk scores |
Severn, M. S., Searchfield, G. D., & Huggard, P. (2011) [16] | United States | Descriptive, cross-sectional postal survey | 82 audiology practitioners that were full members of the New Zealand Audiological Society (NZAS) | AOSQ and ProQOL | Six stressors dominate clinical audiology: (1) time demands, (2) audiology management, (3) patient contact, (4) clinical protocols, (5) patient accountability, and (6) administration or equipment. There was a significant relationship between increasing audiologist age and the risk of burnout. Stress due to patient contact was the strongest predictor of compassion fatigue | This study identified sources of stress for clinical audiologists and various factors that contribute to professional quality of life |
Sacco, T, Ciurzynski, M, Harvey, M Ingersoll, G (2015) [17] | United States | Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional design | 221 adult, pediatric, and neonatal critical care nurses | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) | There were significant differences in compassion statisfaction and compassion fatigue based on gender, age, education level, unit, acuity, nursing management changes, and major system changes | Understanding the elements of professional quality of life can have a positive effect on the work environment. The relationship between professional quality of life and healthy work environment standards requires further investigation to develop appropriate interventions |
Duarte, J & Pinto-Gouveia, J (2017) [21] | Portugal | Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional design | 298 registered nurses from public hospitals | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL)-V | Correlation analysis showed that empathy-based guilt was positively associated with empathy, burnout, and compassion fatigue. When empathy was associated with empathy-based guilt, this led to greater levels of burnout and compassion fatigue | Nurses who experience pathogenic feelings of guilt may have compromised their well-being, and this should be addressed in training programs that aim to prevent or treat burnout and compassion fatigue |
Tucker, T., Bouvette, M., Daly, S., & Grassau, P. (2017) [45] | Canada | Quantitative, experimental | 165 third year trainees at a Canadian Medical School | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) | The results highlight the importance of 1) Recognizing Signs & Symptoms of Individual Stress, CF and Burnout; 2) Normalizing Stress, CF and Burnout in Students and Clinicians; 3) Learning to Manage Stress on Your Own. There was a decrease in compassion statisfaction and an increase in burnout between the beginning and end of the third year | Sharper self-awareness is essential for recognizing and reducing CF and burnout, and the third-year medical curriculum seems to be a good start |
Duarte, Joana Pinto-Gouveia, José (2017) [44] | Portugal | Quantitative, experimental | 94 oncology nurses | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL)-V | Changes in mindfulness mediated changes in burnout, anxiety and stress, and life satisfaction; changes in self-compassion mediated the impact of the intervention on burnout, depression, anxiety, stress and life satisfaction; and psychological inflexibility mediated reductions in burnout, compassion fatigue, depression and stress | These findings contribute to a growing body of research examining the underlying mechanisms at work in MBI, and highlight the importance of mindfulness, self-compassion and psychological inflexibility as key change processes |
Brown, J, Ong, J, Mathers, J, &Decker, J (2017) [18] | United States | Quantitative, exploratory study | mental health professionals (n = 40) and Medical Social Workers students (n = 111) | Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) dan Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) | There was a moderate negative correlation between compassion fatigue and mindfulness, with high levels of compassion fatigue associated with lower levels of mindfulness. There were no statistically significant differences between mental health workers and MSW students on the combined dependent variables | Mindfulness protects against compassion fatigue regardless of professional or student status |
Roney, L & Acri, M (2018) [47] | United States | Quantitative, descriptive correlational | 318 members of the Society of Pediatric Nurses | Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) | More than three-quarters (245, 76%) of the sample had another career before becoming a nurse. The mean job satisfaction level of the sample was 149.8 (SD = 29.74), which was significantly higher than the mean reported for nurses. Bivariate analysis revealed a significant relationship between gender and compassion statisfaction, with women more likely than men to demonstrate compassion statisfaction (t = 1.967, p = 0.05, df = 298) | The majority of nurses had high levels of compassion statisfaction and job satisfaction; furthermore, female gender was associated with higher levels of compassion statisfaction |
Wang, J., Okoli, C., He, H., Feng, F., Li, J., Zhuang, L (2020) [19] | China | Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey | 1044 registered nurses from different nursing departments | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) | The average number of hours worked per day was a positive factor for burnout, while being married/having an unmarried partner, job satisfaction, hours of sleep per day, and sleep quality were negative factors for burnout. Poor sleep quality, low job satisfaction, more working hours, and exposure to cigarette smoke were associated with secondary traumatic stress | Revealed the serious phenomenon of poor professional quality of life among Chinese nurses. Findings may provide clues to help nursing managers identify nurses' vulnerability to compassion fatigue burnout and implement targeted strategies to reduce nurses' burnout and secondary traumatic stress |
Pehlivan, T & Güner, P (2020) [48] | England | Quantitative experimental | 125 oncology-haematology nurses | Perceived Stress Scale | The results of the multilevel model analysis showed no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of compassion fatigue, burnout, perceived stress, and resilience of nurses in the short-term or long-term groups or in the control group | Short-term programs are preferred to encourage more participation among nurses. Further studies that include environmental improvements as well as training programs are needed |
Zakeri, M, Rahiminezhad, E, Salehi, F, Ganjeh, H Dehghan, M (2021) [22] | Iran | Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey | 508 clinical nurses from one public hospital in southern Iran | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) | Compassion statisfaction, compassion fatigue, and hardiness scores were not significantly different during the COVID-19 period compared to before the COVID-19 period (p > 0.05) | Compassion statisfaction, compassion fatigue, and hardiness did not change during COVID-19 compared to before the COVID-19 period. During COVID-19, hardiness became a predictor of compassion statisfaction and compassion fatigue. Compassion statisfaction can be increased and compassion fatigue can be reduced by strengthening hardiness in nurses |
Educator | ||||||
Yang, C Manchanda, S Greenstein, J (2021) [49] | United States | Quantitative, empirical research | 321 educators recruited from a large urban district in Northern California | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL); Online Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (DTSES); Distance Learning School Connectedness Scale (DLSCS) | Educators with longer tenure in education and white educators reported higher levels of compassion fatigue than their peers. White educators also reported lower levels of online teaching self-efficacy than their peers | The importance of promoting school connectedness with educators interactively in improving educators' work well-being and influencing compassion fatigue and online teaching self-efficacy |
Chen, F., Ge, Y., Xu, W., Yu, J., Zhang, Y., Xu, X., & Zhang, S. (2023) [20] | China | Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey | 1049 kindergarten teachers | Kindergarten Teachers’ Mindsets Toward Children; Motivation for Teacher Empathy (MTE); Compassion Fatigue Short Scale (C-CF Short Scale) | Teacher empathy motivation mediates the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindset towards children and compassion fatigue. Job stress and social support moderate the relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindset towards children and teacher empathy motivation | The proposed moderated mediation model was found to be valid. In addition, the findings of this study have practical implications for developing evidence-based interventions to address kindergarten teachers' compassion fatigue |
Psychology | ||||||
Craig, C.D, & Sprang, G (2010) [50] | England | Quantitative, experiment | 1000 clinical psychology and 1000 clinical social work were selected from the 2003 National Association of Social Worker’s | ProQOL-III | 46% scored above the cut-off for compassion satisfaction by half of the clinicians 5% of the clinicians scored above the cut-off for burnout 5% scored above the cut-off for compassion fatigue | Utilization of evidence-based practices predicted a statistically significant decrease in compassion fatigue and burnout, and increased compassion satisfaction |
Mixed Helping Professionals | ||||||
Ondrejková, N Halamová, J (2022) [1] | England | Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey | 102 nurses, 44 doctors, 57 paramedics, 39 home nurses, 66 teachers, 103 psychologists, 40 psychotherapists and coaches, 76 social workers, 39 priests and pastors and 41 police officers | Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL)-V; Sussex-Oxford Compassion for the Self Scale (SOCS-S) | There were significant differences in the level of compassion fatigue in various helping professions. The highest levels reported were doctors, educators, home caregivers, nurses and psychologists. The lowest levels of CF were psychotherapists and coaches | High CF rates among healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, and psychologists) and educators may be due to the poor quality of health and education systems in Central Europe |