Paper

Compassion Fatigue among Medical Workers at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Nairobi, Kenya


Authors:
David E. Bukusi; Donald A. Kokonya; John M. Mburu; Dammas M. Kathuku; Ndetei, D. M.; Desire A. Nshimirimana; Adam H. Adam; Louise Mapleh Kpoto; Phocas S. Biraboneye
Abstract
Background: Compassion Fatigue (CF) continues to take toll on the health and outputs of the medical worker as attested by the outcomes of the studies conducted mainly in Europe and the United States of America. Little is known about its impact on the health and performance of the Kenyan medical workers. Not much in Kenya is known about the adaptability of the Kenyan medical workers to compassion fatigue and their hardiness in coping with it. Objective: To establish the prevalence and factors associated with compassion fatigue among medical workers (medical practitioners and nurses) at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Design: Cross-sectional and descriptive. Subjects: Three hundred and forty five (345) medical workers (medical practitioners and nurses) with six or more months of work experience at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Outcome measures: Prevalence rates, socio-demographic characteristics, factors associated with and influencing compassion fatigue among the medical practitioners and nurses. Methods: Proportionate allocation and simple random sampling strategy were used to recruit the study participants on the basis of qualifications, departments and area of deployment. Results: The crude prevalence rate of compassion fatigue was 29.6% (2.9% for medical practitioners and 33.1% for the nurses). The risk factors for compassion fatigue were found to be nursing (p=0.002) and middle college level of education (p=0.03). Overall, 93.0% of the compassion fatigue intensity scores among the medical practitioners and 91.0% among nurses were attributed to a combination of ‘self’, ‘patients and their relatives’, and the ‘practitioner’s work environmental factors. The remaining 7.0% among the medical practitioners and 9.0% among nurses were attributed to unexplained factors, not captured by the questionnaire. Individually, factors pertaining to self contributed 83.0% among medical practitioners and 73.0% among nurses and patients and their relatives contributed 26.0% of compassion fatigue intensity scores among the medical practitioners and 33.0% among the nurses. Work environment did not contribute to compassion fatigue among the medical workers. Conclusion: Compassion fatigue is prevalent and it affected both medical practitioners and nurses at the KNH, but the nurses were almost three (3) times more affected than the medical practitioners. The factors associated with compassion fatigue were multiple, highest being ‘self-related’ factors. These findings suggested that large-scale studies should be undertaken to provide more evidence.
Keywords
Compassion Fatigue Self-Test; Compassion Fatigue; Secondary Traumatic Stress; Contagion; Medical Workers; Empathy
StartPage
24
EndPage
30
Doi
10.5963/JMRD0403001
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