Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
S Afr J Commun Disord. 2024 Aug 23;71(1):e1-e9. doi: 10.4102/sajcd.v71i1.1042.
Limited research is available regarding the professional quality of life experiences of South African speech-language therapists and audiologists, despite the implications this has for wellbeing, quality of patient care, productivity and attrition from the professions.
This study explored levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress, the relationships between these, differences on the basis of registration and years of experience and participants' perceptions of their professional quality of life.
A sample of 92 South African speech-language therapists and audiologists completed an online survey that included the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) scale. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variation (ANOVA), correlations and thematic analysis.
The findings indicated that participants experienced slightly higher levels of secondary traumatic stress and burnout and slightly lower levels of compassion satisfaction than international samples. There were significant inter-relationships between the three elements of professional quality of life, and no significant differences for these on the basis of registration or years of experience. Participants identified a range of factors that contributed to their experiences of compassion satisfaction and fatigue, as well as suggestions for improvement.
Professional quality of life plays an important role in South African speech-language therapists and audiologists' professionalism, job performance and satisfaction and retention.Contribution: The data collected provide valuable insights into the professional quality of life experiences of South African speech-language therapists and audiologists, as well as those working in similar contexts. It also offers suggestions that may contribute to future research and interventions.
尽管南非言语治疗师和听力学家的职业生活质量对幸福感、患者护理质量、生产力和职业流失率有影响，但关于这方面的研究却很有限。
本研究探讨了南非言语治疗师和听力学家的同情满足感、倦怠和二次创伤压力的水平，以及这些因素之间的关系，基于注册和工作年限的差异，以及参与者对其职业生活质量的看法。
92 名南非言语治疗师和听力学家完成了一项在线调查，其中包括职业生活质量（ProQOL）量表。使用描述性统计、方差分析（ANOVA）、相关性和主题分析对数据进行分析。
研究结果表明，与国际样本相比，参与者经历了稍高的二次创伤压力和倦怠，稍低的同情满足感。职业生活质量的三个要素之间存在显著的相互关系，而基于注册或工作年限，这些因素没有显著差异。参与者确定了一系列导致其同情满足感和疲劳的因素，并提出了一些改进建议。
职业生活质量在南非言语治疗师和听力学家的专业精神、工作表现和满意度以及保留率方面发挥着重要作用。
收集的数据为南非言语治疗师和听力学家以及在类似环境中工作的人的职业生活质量体验提供了有价值的见解。它还提出了一些可能有助于未来研究和干预的建议。
