METHODS
Sample of the study consisted of 81 healthcare professionals working in three hospitals in Istanbul. The
data were collected with "Sociodemographic Characteristics Form" and "Compassion Scale" in January
and February 2019.
RESULTS
In this study, 65 (80.2%) of the participants were nurses, 12 (14.8%) were physicians and four (4.9%) were
health staff members. There was a significant difference between the compassion scores (ZMWU=-2.470;
p=0.014) of the healthcare professionals according to their gender. There was a significant difference between
the compassion scores (ZMWU=-2.197; p=0.028) of the participants according to their status of having
children. There was a significant difference between the compassion scores (t=4.128; p=0.001) of the
healthcare professionals according to their perception of interpersonal relations. There was a positively weak
correlation between the age averages and total compassion scores (r=0.253; p=0.022) of the participants.
CONCLUSION
There are many factors that may affect the feelings of compassion of healthcare professionals who work in
palliative care, especially with patients in the end-of-life period. It is important for healthcare professionals
to know these factors that may affect their own sense of compassion and control their negative features.
Keywords: Compassion; nurses; palliative care; physicians
Compassion is described as sadness and pity felt
against a bad situation faced by an individual or another
creature.[
This study was conducted to investigate the compassion
status of healthcare professionals working in
the palliative care unit.
The Inclusion Criteria
• Working in the palliative care unit for at least one
month,
• Agreeing to participate in this study
The Exclusion Criteria
• Changing the service during the study period,
• Being on leave during the study period.
Type, Time and Place of this Study
This descriptive study was conducted in palliative care
units of two training and research hospitals and a state
hospital in Istanbul. The data were collected between
January and February 2019.
Data Collection Tools
The data of this study were collected using "Sociodemographic
Characteristics Form" and "Compassion
Scale". Data collection forms were filled out by healthcare
professionals.
Sociodemographic Characteristics Form
"Sociodemographic Characteristics Form" having 15
questions, including six open-ended questions about
sociodemographic characteristics, was prepared by the
researchers.
Compassion Scale
Turkish validity and reliability study of the Compassion
Scale, which was developed by Pommier, was conducted
by Akdeniz and Deniz.[9,10] The scale consists
of a total of 24 items. The scores are rated with a fivepoint
Likert type. The scale questions six subscales,
including kindness (items of 6, 8, 16, 24), indifference
(items of 2, 12, 14, 18), common humanity (items of
11, 15, 17, 20), separation(items of 3, 5, 10, 22), mindfulness
(items of 4, 9, 13, 21) and disengagement (items
of 1, 7, 19, 23). Indifference, separation and disengagement
subscales of the scale are reversely scored. The
scores obtained using this method were calculated, and
the total mean score was obtained. As the total score
obtained from the scale increases, the level of compassion
increases.
Data Assessment
In the data assessment, descriptive statistics were conducted
with mean and standard deviation; whereas the
comparison studies were conducted using the Mann-
Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, T-test, and Pearson"s
Correlation Test.
Ethical Considerations
To conduct this study, written ethics committee approval
(2019-2/16) was obtained from Acıbadem
University and Acıbadem Health Institutions Medical
Research Ethics Committee. Informed consent was obtained from the healthcare professionals constituting
the sample of this study in accordance with the voluntariness
principle.
The total compassion score of the healthcare professionals
was 3.71±0.31. Total compassion scores were
minimum of 2.83 and maximum of 4.25 (Table
There was a significant difference between the
compassions scores of the healthcare professionals by
gender (ZMWU=-2.470; p=0.014), kindness subscale
scores (ZMWU=-2.788; p=0.005) and separation subscale
scores (ZMWU=-2.473; p=0.013). There was a
significant difference between the compassion scores
(ZMWU=-2.197; p=0.028); kindness subscale scores
(ZMWU=-2.467; p=0.014) and mindfulness subscale
(ZMWU=-2.664; p=0.008) of the participants in terms
of the status of having children. There was a statistically
significant difference between the common humanity
of the healthcare professionals who received palliative
care training and the healthcare professionals who did
not (t=-2.680; p=0.009). There was a statistically significant
difference between the total compassion scores of
the healthcare professionals in terms of their perception
of their own interpersonal relationships (t=4.128;
p=0.001). When the subscales were examined, there
were significant differences between the kindness
(t=4,079; p=0.001), indifference (t=-2.436; p=0.018),
separation(t=-2.884; p=0.006), mindfulness (t=4.312; p=0.001) and disengagement (t=-2.685; p=0.009) scores
in terms of perception of interpersonal relationships,.
It was observed that there was no significant difference
between the compassions scores of the healthcare professionals
and their marital status, educational level,
profession, the status of preferring the unit they work,
and satisfaction with their unit (p>0.05) (Table
There was a positive weak correlation between the
mean age of the participants and the total compassion
scores (r=0.253; p=0.022) and mindfulness subscale
scores (r=0.278; p=0.012). There was a positive weak
correlation between the working time of the participants
and their compassion scores (r=0.298; p=0.007),
common humanity subscale scores (r=0.246; p=0.027)
and mindfulness subscale scores (r=0.276; p=0.013).
There was a positive weak correlation between the
weekly working hours of the participants and their
common humanity subscale scores (r=0.309; p=0.005)
and disengagement subscale scores (r=0.256; p=0.021).
There was no correlation between the working time of
healthcare professionals in the PC and their compassion
scores (p>0.05) (Table
There are a limited number of studies on compassion
in healthcare professionals in Turkey and it is observed
that these studies have been mostly conducted
with nurses.[
In the study, it was seen that the compassion levels
of women were significantly higher than men. In various
studies, it has been stated that compassion levels of women were expected to be higher.[
During the PC training, the meaning of PC and
the patients" expectations are emphasized.[
An important result obtained from the present
study was that compassion levels and most of the
subscales of healthcare professionals who were good
at perceiving interpersonal relationships were significantly
higher than the healthcare professionals who
had moderate and low perception. Compassion fatigue
prevention strategies are versatile. The healthcare team
can support their social care and spiritual self-care with
professionally supportive interpersonal relationships.
[
As the mean age and the working duration in the
profession of healthcare professionals working in the
PC increase, total compassion levels, common humanity
and mindfulness subscale mean scores are also seen
to increase. This result can be interpreted that the PC
team can evaluate the diagnosis and treatment results
better as they gain more experience, and they can develop
better empathy by feeling the problems experienced
by a person with a chronic illness or a person
who is about to die. In addition, as the professional experience
of the PC team increases, the time they spend
on the learning period decreases and they can make
more room for their patients in their emotional worlds.
Another study also supports this result.[
It was observed that as the working hours of the PC
team increases regardless of being nurse, physician or
health officer, their status of cutting their communications
with the patient increased. When combined with
another result, it can be considered that as healthcare
professionals are more aware of the shares, they behave
more recessive in communicating with the patient. It
can be thought that healthcare professionals who work
with terminally ill patients and the healthcare professionals
who lost patients with whom they spend a lot
of time together have the tendencies to reduce their
communication with patients to protect themselves
psychologically.
Peer-review: Externally peer-reviewed.
Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest.
Ethics Committee Approval: To conduct this study, written ethics committee approval (2019-2/16) was obtained from Acıbadem University and Acıbadem Health Institutions Medical Research Ethics Committee.
Financial Support: There is no financial sport.
Authorship contributions: Concept - Ö.O., M.H.İ., V.K., D.Y.; Design - Ö.O., M.H.İ., V.K., D.Y.; Supervision - Ö.O.; Funding - None; Materials - Ö.O., M.H.İ., V.K., D.Y.; Data collection and/or processing - Ö.O., M.H.İ.; Data analysis and/or interpretation - V.K., D.Y.; Literature search - V.K., D.Y.; Writing - Ö.O., M.H.İ., V.K., D.Y.; Critical review - Ö.O., M.H.İ., V.K., D.Y.
