Exploring the Correlation Between Palliative Care Training in Brazil and Compassion Fatigue: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: The literature lacks conclusive evidence regarding whether palliative care training confers a protective or predisposing influence on compassion fatigue. The present study hypothesizes that training in palliative care is associated with minor compassion fatigue levels among physicians and an improvement in their confidence in several procedures.

Aim: To explore the physicians experiences with and without palliative care training who work as general practitioners in order to assess the prevalence of compassion fatigue in these groups.

Methods: This is a quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional survey. For data analysis, Mann-Whitney and Pearson's chi-squared test tests were used considering P < 0.05 for significance.

Results: The majority respondents had no training in palliative care (77.8%), however, 58.3% declared that they cared for at least 1 palliative care patient every 2 shifts - an intermediate frequency in our analysis. Trauma levels among doctors were classified as medium (24 ± 6), burnout as low (19 ± 5) and compassion as medium (41 ± 5). Professionals without training in palliative care had higher rates of burnout (P = 0.002), but there was no association between training and rates of trauma or compassion.

Conclusions: Doctors with training in palliative care in Brazil showed lower burnout rates when working as general practitioners in secondary hospitals. This could instigate the implementation of educational programs in palliative care at hospitals and the further development of the field so as to improve professionals' performance at patients' treatment. There was no difference between Trauma and Compassion scores.

Keywords: compassion fatigue; occupational burnout; palliative care; professional-patient relations; public health education for professionals; quality of life.