Udipi Sharanya, Veach Patricia McCarthy, Kao Juihsien, LeRoy Bonnie S
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
J Genet Couns. 2008 Oct;17(5):459-71. doi: 10.1007/s10897-008-9162-3. Epub 2008 Aug 14.
Empathic connection with one's patients is essential to genetic counselor clinical practice. However, repeatedly engaging with distressed patients may cause compassion fatigue, a phenomenon characterized as feeling overwhelmed by experiencing patients' suffering. In order to extend findings of an initial qualitative study, we surveyed 222 genetic counselors about their compassion fatigue and factors that predict its occurrence. Multiple regression analysis identified seven significant predictors accounting for 53.7% of the variance in compassion fatigue. Respondents at higher risk of compassion fatigue were more likely to report being burned out, using self-criticism and giving up to manage stress, experiencing a greater variety of distressing clinical events, having larger patient caseloads, relying on religion as a coping strategy, having no children, and seeking support to manage stress. Respondents also provided critical incidents regarding their compassion fatigue and themes in these incidents are described. Practice and research recommendations are provided.
与患者建立共情联系对于遗传咨询师的临床实践至关重要。然而，反复与痛苦的患者接触可能会导致同情疲劳，这是一种因经历患者的痛苦而感到不堪重负的现象。为了扩展一项初步定性研究的结果，我们对222名遗传咨询师进行了调查，了解他们的同情疲劳以及预测其发生的因素。多元回归分析确定了七个显著的预测因素，它们占同情疲劳方差的53.7%。同情疲劳风险较高的受访者更有可能报告职业倦怠、使用自我批评和放弃来应对压力、经历更多种类的痛苦临床事件、患者病例数更多、将宗教作为应对策略、没有孩子以及寻求支持来应对压力。受访者还提供了关于他们同情疲劳的关键事件，并描述了这些事件中的主题。同时给出了实践和研究建议。
