An investigation into the relationship between the emotional experience of healthcare professionals, the three flows of compassion and compassion fatigue within the context of the pandemic

Abstract

The first chapter details a systematic review of studies investigating the effectiveness of wellbeing interventions in reducing stress in professionals working with forensic populations. Information was collected from seven databases. Study screening, quality assessment and data extraction was conducted. Nine research papers met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the review. Interventions were either psychological or physical in nature. A narrative synthesis indicated mixed effects across interventions with heterogeneity evident in the types of interventions and the stress measures used. Longer term psychological interventions with elements of self-management appeared most effective at stress reduction. Future research should adopt randomised controlled trials with standardised stress measures alongside measures of treatment adherence.
The second chapter is an empirical paper investigating the emotional distress of Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) and its relationship with the flows of compassion (Self-compassion (SC), compassion from others (CfO) and compassion to others (CtO)) and compassion fatigue (CF) during the pandemic. The demands of working in healthcare were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Theoretically, increases in emotional distress during this period would activate the threat system, thereby impacting the flows of compassion and compassion fatigue levels in HCPs. Findings revealed higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress were associated with increased CF and lower CfO. Higher levels of stress and depression were associated with lower SC, but not anxiety. Restrictive policies at the time may have led to anxiety inhibition and heightened levels of stress and depression, thereby impacting an HCP’s ability to receive compassion (from themselves or others). CtO showed no associations with CF, depression, stress or anxiety indicating its general stability within HCPs. It can be concluded that the emotional distress of HCPs (particularly depression and stress) is related to their levels of compassion (SC and CfO) and CF within the context of the pandemic.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Catherine Brignell: orcid.org/0000-0001-7768-6272

Catalogue record

Export record