Compassion Fatigue is Similar in Emergency Medicine Residents Compared to other Medical and Surgical Specialties
Introduction: Compassion fatigue (CF) is the emotional and physical burden felt by those helping others in distress, leading to a reduced capacity and interest in being empathetic towards future suffering. Emergency care providers are at an increased risk of CF secondary to their first responder...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eScholarship Publishing, University of California
2014-09-01
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| Series: | Western Journal of Emergency Medicine |
| Online Access: | http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4pn5d48k |
| Summary: | Introduction: Compassion fatigue (CF) is the emotional and physical burden felt by those helping
others in distress, leading to a reduced capacity and interest in being empathetic towards future
suffering. Emergency care providers are at an increased risk of CF secondary to their first responder
roles and exposure to traumatic events. We aimed to investigate the current state of compassion
fatigue among emergency medicine (EM) resident physicians, including an assessment of
contributing factors.
Methods: We distributed a validated electronic questionnaire consisting of the Professional Quality
of Life Scale with subscales for the three components of CF (compassion satisfaction, burnout and
secondary traumatic stress), with each category scored independently. We collected data pertaining
to day- versus night-shift distribution, hourly workload and child dependents. We included residents
in EM, neurology, orthopedics, family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, and general surgery.
Results: We surveyed 255 residents, with a response rate of 75%. Of the 188 resident respondents,
18% worked a majority of their clinical shifts overnight, and 32% had child dependents. Burnout
scores for residents who worked greater than 80 hours per week, or primarily worked overnight
shifts, were higher than residents who worked less than 80 hours (mean score 25.0 vs 21.5;
p=0.013), or did not work overnight (mean score 23.5 vs 21.3; p=0.022). EM residents had similar
scores in all three components of CF when compared to other specialties. Secondary traumatic
stress scores for residents who worked greater than 80 hours were higher than residents who
worked less than 80 hours (mean score 22.2 vs 19.5; p=0.048), and those with child dependents had
higher secondary traumatic stress than those without children (mean score 21.0 vs 19.1; p=0.012).
Conclusion: CF scores in EM residents are similar to residents in other surgical and medical
specialties. Residents working primarily night shifts and those working more than 80 hours per week
appear to be at high risk of developing compassion fatigue. Residents with children are more likely to
experience secondary traumatic stress. [West J Emerg Med. 2014;15(6):629–635] |
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| ISSN: | 1936-900X 1936-9018 |