Compassion fatigue is similar in emergency medicine residents compared to other medical and surgical specialties.

ABSTRACT:

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

SUBMITTER: Bellolio MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4162717 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature