Compassion in Medicine: Assessing Physician Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue

Abstract

Introduction: Compassion is the art of being able to act on empathy. Compassion plays a role in day-to-day medicine and serves as the root of interactions not only between providers and patients but also between colleagues on a team. This study aimed to employ a curriculum, the Compassionate Practice™ method, in a community of practicing physicians and assess if these lessons improved a physician’s compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Compassion satisfaction is the gratification one feels with the work that one does.1 Compassion fatigue is the distress associated with repeated exposure to people who have gone through traumatic life experiences.2 Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue of a physician could potentially help with identifying one’s job satisfaction, contributing to life satisfaction, and helping recognize early signs of burnout. Physicians' mental health is important because it affects the quality of care they provide. Thus, being able to accurately identify these components of one’s professional quality of life can potentially have a positive impact on patient care.

Methods: This study utilized the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) to assess compassion satisfaction and fatigue. This survey was given to physicians as an initial pre-test to establish a baseline, followed by the Compassionate Practice™ curriculum, which contained three learning modules on different techniques physicians can use to employ compassion in their day-to-day practice. After a period of roughly 6 months, physicians were then given the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) to see if there was a change in their scores, along with three open-ended questions regarding the effects of COVID on their practice.

Results: This study is to be considered a pilot study, given an n = 7. Our results for these participants showed that the mean compassion satisfaction scores did decrease from pre-test to post-test assessments. Both scores for the post-test burnout and secondary traumatic stress did slightly increase from the pre-test scores as well. In the qualitative analysis portion, all participants endorsed they were able to apply the techniques from the curriculum modules to their clinical practice. They also agreed on the importance of compassion in practice and patient satisfaction. Lastly, they were split, regarding the impact of COVID-19 on patient communication.

Conclusion: The current study suggests that there is room for this research to be repeated on a grander scale with a bigger sample size. Additionally, there needs to be further research done to assess the components that contribute to compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. There also needs to be more studies to assess the best modality by which physicians actively engage in continuing medical education.