Compassion Fatigue in Healthcare Workers Working in the Emergency Department, Emergency Room, and General Intensive Care Units.

Compassion Fatigue in Healthcare Workers Working in the Emergency Department, Emergency Room, and General Intensive Care Units. A PRE-POST Participatory Action Research Study

Compassion Fatigue can be conceptualized as consisting of two components (Gentry, 2015): (1) burnout, and (2) secondary traumatic stress (STS), also referred to as vicarious trauma.

The study includes a quantitative assessment through the administration of the Professional Quality of Life Scale (Professional Quality of Life: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue, Version 5; Stamm, 2009) at two time points, baseline (T0) and follow-up (T1), to measure levels of Compassion Fatigue among healthcare professionals working within the Emergency Department, specifically in the Emergency Room and General Intensive Care Unit.

In the interval between the two quantitative assessments, following T0 and preceding T1, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach will be conducted. The study will also explore potential protective and risk factors related to Compassion Fatigue specific to the Emergency Room and General Intensive Care Unit settings. The Participatory Action Research will be carried out using focus group methodology.

The primary objective of the study is to assess Compassion Fatigue (Larsen & Stamm, 2008) among healthcare professionals working in the Emergency Department, specifically in the Emergency Room and General Intensive Care Unit of the Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia, before (T0) and after (T1) the implementation of the Participatory Action Research conducted through focus groups. The second assessment (T1) will be carried out 18 months after the baseline assessment (T0)

Inclusion Criteria:

• Minimum age of 18 years at the time of questionnaire completion;
• Employment in the Emergency Room or General Intensive Care Unit of the Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo as a physician, nurse, or healthcare assistant at the time of questionnaire completion;
• Provision of written informed consent. Exclusion Criteria
• Individuals who, although employed at the Policlinico San Matteo at the time of questionnaire completion, do not work as physicians, nurses, or healthcare assistants or do not reside in Italy at the time of questionnaire completion;
• Individuals who, although employed at the Policlinico San Matteo at the time of questionnaire completion and working as physicians, nurses, or healthcare assistants, are not assigned to one of the departments involved in the study (Emergency Room or General Intensive Care Unit).