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

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.