The Prevalence of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout among Healthcare Professionals in Intensive Care Units: A Systematic Review

Working in the stressful environment of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is an emotionally charged challenge that might affect the emotional stability of medical staff. The quality of care for ICU patients and their relatives might be threatened through long-term absenteeism or a brain and skill drain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 10; no. 8; p. e0136955
Main Authors: van Mol, Margo M. C., Kompanje, Erwin J. O., Benoit, Dominique D., Bakker, Jan, Nijkamp, Marjan D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 31.08.2015
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Absenteeism
Adaptation, Psychological - physiology
Anxiety Disorders - psychology
Brain
Burn out (Psychology)
Burnout
Burnout, Professional - psychology
Clinical trials
Communication
Communication skills
Compassion Fatigue - epidemiology
Compassion Fatigue - psychology
Critical care
Critical Care - psychology
Cross-sectional studies
Decision making
Demographic aspects
Emotions
Empathy - physiology
Ethics
Fatigue
Health aspects
Health care
Health Personnel - psychology
Hospitals
Humans
Intensive care
Intensive Care Units
Intervention
Job satisfaction
Literature reviews
Medical personnel
Mindfulness
Nurses
Nursing care
Occupational stress
Post traumatic stress disorder
Prevalence
Prevalence studies (Epidemiology)
Psychological aspects
Risk factors
Schedules
Scientific papers
Skills
Stress
Stress, Psychological - psychology
Stresses
Surveys and Questionnaires
Trauma
Work environment
Netherlands
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Working in the stressful environment of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is an emotionally charged challenge that might affect the emotional stability of medical staff. The quality of care for ICU patients and their relatives might be threatened through long-term absenteeism or a brain and skill drain if the healthcare professionals leave their jobs prematurely in order to preserve their own health. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the literature related to emotional distress among healthcare professionals in the ICU, with an emphasis on the prevalence of burnout and compassion fatigue and the available preventive strategies. A systematic literature review was conducted, using Embase, Medline OvidSP, Cinahl, Web-of-science, PsychINFO, PubMed publisher, Cochrane and Google Scholar for articles published between 1992 and June, 2014. Studies reporting the prevalence of burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma in ICU healthcare professionals were included, as well as related intervention studies. Forty of the 1623 identified publications, which included 14,770 respondents, met the selection criteria. Two studies reported the prevalence of compassion fatigue as 7.3% and 40%; five studies described the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress ranging from 0% to 38.5%. The reported prevalence of burnout in the ICU varied from 0% to 70.1%. A wide range of intervention strategies emerged from the recent literature search, such as different intensivist work schedules, educational programs on coping with emotional distress, improving communication skills, and relaxation methods. The true prevalence of burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma in ICU healthcare professionals remains open for discussion. A thorough exploration of emotional distress in relation to communication skills, ethical rounds, and mindfulness might provide an appropriate starting point for the development of further preventive strategies.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceived and designed the experiments: MvM EK DB JB MN. Performed the experiments: MvM EK MN. Analyzed the data: MvM EK MN. Wrote the paper: MvM EK DB JB MN.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0136955