Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction in health professionals from intensive care units (ICU) in the pandemic context

Abstract

Health professionals working in intensive care are daily exposed to critical and stressful situations,
as well as traumatic events, a phenomenon that became even more significant during the Covid-19
pandemic, when considering the significant increase in the demands for this level of care. In view
of this scenario, the present research aimed to identify the presence of Compassion Fatigue and
Compassion Satisfaction in a multidisciplinary team of the Intensive Care Unit Covid-19 (ICU
Covid-19), of a hospital located in the South of Brazil. A mixed qualitative and quantitative method
was used, given the application of a socio-labour questionnaire, the Professional Quality of Life
Scale-V (ProQOL-V) by Stamm (2010), translated and adapted into Portuguese in the first stage of
the research, and a semi-structured interview in the second stage. 58 health professionals who worked
in the Covid ICU participated in the quantitative part and three professionals who responded to the
instruments participated in the qualitative part. Among the working conditions, long hours stand out,
as well as a lack of professionals and technical preparation to deal with a new situation. The results
point to Compassion Satisfaction and medium Burnout, and low Secondary Traumatic Stress. It is
understood that the compassion satisfaction and the good relationship of the team was a fundamental
factor, however, a new longitudinal study is suggested, aiming to investigate how these indicators
behave in the exposure of professionals in the long term.