Abstract
Background: Respiratory therapists who work in the intensive care unit with patients who suffer from cardiopulmonary diseases are affected from compassion fatigue and burnout. The intensive care unit is a stressful environment, due to most patients being critically ill or unstable, as well as when the doctor has told the patient or patient family of a terminal illness prognosis. Respiratory therapists work in different areas in the hospital especially in the ICUs. Sometimes respiratory therapists and other staff are involved in traumatic events. After continuous exposure to traumatic events the respiratory therapists are more likely to develop compassion fatigue and burnout.
Methods: A cross-sectional study in KAMC in Riyadh among respiratory therapist. The Professional Quality of Life Scale (proQOL-5) questionnaire was used to collect data.
Results: The prevalence of compassion fatigue, burnout and Compassion satisfaction were 68.7%, 60.6% and 54.5% respectively. The level of compassion satisfaction among the participants about 52% of participants had average level of CS. About the level of compassion fatigue 63% of the participants had average level of CF. A majority (60%) of participants had average level of burnout. The mean score of compassion satisfaction was found to be 40.13 + 6.41 while the mean score of burnout was 26.89 + 7.82 and that of compassion fatigue was found to be 24.22 + 5.57.
Conclusions: High level of compassion fatigue causes a lot of problems such as feeling of helplessness, lowered concentration, and work absenteeism. After this study our suggestion is to limit the development of compassion fatigue on the staff and find the solutions for them.
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