Incorporating compassion into compassion fatigue: The development of a new scale

Abstract

Objective Although theory supports compassion fatigue as a separate condition, compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress (STS) are terms often used interchangeably. We aim to create a compassion fatigue scale while comparing it to burnout and STS. Method Survey data were collected from 651 psychologists working in Sweden using a Compassion Fatigue Inventory (CFI), the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, and the STS Scale. Results An exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the CFI resulting in high internal consistency generating three subfactors: Reduced Compassion, Social Life, and Workplace. Even though Compassion fatigue had a high correlation with both burnout and STS, the results suggest a narrower conceptualization of compassion fatigue. The only background variable related to compassion fatigue was years of work experience. Conclusion This new CFI can be useful in examining reduced compassion in health care professionals.

The design and validation of a Compassion Fatigue Scale in Peruvian nurses

“…Nonetheless, there are few psychometric studies that analyze and measure this construct [28,41], even more so when considering measurement instruments created or adapted for Latin America [4,19]. In the Peruvian case, the recent pandemic placed this country among the hardest hit in Latin America [26,42].…”

“…In subsequent psychometric studies, the instrument was reported to have poor consistency [18], but it was reported to possess good consistency indices in the Brazilian context [19]. Likewise, the instrument developed by Eng et al [41] converged on three factors with an of 0.90 for the rst factor, 0.87 for the second factor, and 0.74 for the third factor, but this was given in a sample of psychologists. However, the values presented in the EFat-Com scale showed a reliable and reproducible scale in similar contexts.…”

Self‐perceived clinical competence, gender and workplace setting predict burnout among psychotherapists

“…The three‐factor structure of the CBI and the overall psychometric properties have been confirmed in several studies (Thrush et al., 2020; Walters et al., 2018; Montgomery et al, 2021). However, since other studies have suggested a two‐factor solution, an exploratory factor analysis of the CBI was conducted and resulted in a suggested three‐factor solution with alpha = 0.87 for the personal subscale, alpha = 0.74 for the work‐related subscale and alpha = 0.84 for the client‐related subscale, indicating that the results from the CBI could be analysed in their original form (Eng et al., 2021).…”

Police Resilience as a Multilevel Balance: Needs and Resources for Victim Support Officers

“…Besides the aforementioned main consequences, among compassion fatigue’s most frequently analyzed effects we may find physical and psychological exhaustion, feelings of disconnectedness and inefficacy, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, job dissatisfaction, lack of boundaries between work and personal life, reduction of productivity, and even willingness to quit (Carlson-Johnson et al, 2020; Edwards & Goussios, 2021; Eng et al, 2021; Pérez-García et al, 2021; Voth Schrag et al, 2022). Similar to burnout and resilience, compassion fatigue can be understood and studied from an individual perspective, but also from the point of view of organizational, ecological, or even social factors and responsibilities (Edwards & Goussios, 2021).…”