Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Compassion Fatigue in Cardiac Physicians Working in Tertiary Care Cardiac Hospitals in Pakistan

Introduction The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and risk factors of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout among cardiac physicians working in tertiary care cardiac hospitals in Pakistan. Materials and methods We performed a cross-sectional study in four tertiary care cardiac hospitals located in Rawalpindi and Lahore, Pakistan from June 2017 to January 2018. The study comprised of three stages. The first stage involved administration of the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL-5) questionnaire in order to assess the prevalence of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout in cardiac physicians. In the second stage, cardiac physicians were divided into two groups according to their compassion fatigue level. In the third stage, 50 participants were selected via convenience sampling to participate in a 15-minute interview regarding compassion fatigue and risk factors. The data obtained was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY). Results The mean age of the participants was found to be 39.2 ± 6.3 years. Out of the 200 participants, 110 (55.0%) were males while 90 (45.0%) were females. The mean score in the compassion satisfaction category was 39.13 ± 5.54 while the mean score of burnout category was 24.7 ± 4.28 and that of secondary traumatic stress (compassion fatigue) was 25.97 ± 6.39. Participants whose age was less than 40 years had a higher score in Burnout (p < 0.001) and secondary traumatic stress category (p < 0.05). Conclusions In Pakistan compassion fatigue, despite being reported as a negative phenomenon, has received little or no attention. There is a dire need to increase awareness about compassion fatigue and burnout among cardiac care physicians in Pakistan.