Compassion Fatigue in Chest Disease Clinicians: The Effect of Psychological Capital and the Relationship Between Colleagues

Objective: Compassion fatigue is representative of the cost of caring and is reported to have significant negative effects. Compassion fatigue needs to be better understood in order to define, prevent, and intervene. The aim of this study is to determine the level of compassion fatigue and possible predictors (demographics, vocational features, satisfaction, and psychological capital) in physicians and nurses working in chest diseases and thoracic surgery hospital.

Material And Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 205 clinicians (83 physicians, 122 nurses) working face-toface with in-patients. Data were collected with a semi-structured interview, the Professional Quality of Life Scale, and the Psychological Capital Scale.

Results: The average age of the participants was 31.96 ± 8.60 years, most of them (67.3%) were women. The average compassion fatigue score was 20.15 ± 8.58 for the physicians and 17.16 ± 9.49 for the nurses, and the difference was found to be statistically significant (P = .01). However, in the regression analysis, it was determined that the profession did not have a significant effect, and that dissatisfaction with the colleagues increased the compassion fatigue 2.5-fold (P = .03). It was found that low resilience, one of the subscales of the Psychological Capital Scale, increased compassion fatigue 2.14-fold (P = .007). Other professional variables and demographic characteristics were not significantly related to compassion fatigue (P > .05).

Conclusion: The results of this study show the importance of the relationship and resilience among colleagues in the prevention of compassion fatigue. It also points out that physicians are at risk of developing compassion fatigue.