College of Social Work, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Department of Social Welfare, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Soc Work Health Care. 2019 Nov-Dec;58(10):970-987. doi: 10.1080/00981389.2019.1686678. Epub 2019 Oct 31.
Medical social workers are affected by their clients' suffering, which has an impact on social workers' professional quality of life. This study examined the role of empathy in relation to professional quality of life among medical social workers in South Korea. Using the Professional Quality of Life Scale and Interpersonal Reactivity Index, we found that empathic concern and personal distress were significant components of empathy and were correlated with professional quality of life. Empathic concern was positively associated with compassion satisfaction and negatively associated with burnout. Personal distress was correlated with all components of quality of life: compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. Women had significantly higher levels of burnout than men; religious affiliation was associated with higher levels of compassion satisfaction; and longer years of employment was associated with higher levels of secondary traumatic stress. Medical social workers should be educated on and trained in how empathy can help them address compassion fatigue and promote compassion satisfaction.
医务社会工作者受到其服务对象苦难的影响，这对社会工作者的职业生活质量产生了影响。本研究考察了同理心在韩国医务社会工作者职业生活质量中的作用。使用专业生活质量量表和人际反应性指数，我们发现，同理心关怀和个人困扰是同理心的重要组成部分，与职业生活质量相关。同理心关怀与职业生活质量的所有组成部分都呈正相关，包括同情满足、二次创伤压力和倦怠。女性的倦怠水平显著高于男性；宗教信仰与同情满足呈正相关；工作年限与二次创伤压力呈正相关。医务社会工作者应该接受关于同理心如何帮助他们应对同情疲劳和促进同情满足的教育和培训。
