A Descriptive Study to Assess Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction among Caregivers of Patients undergoing Chemotherapy in selected Hospital in a City of India

Abstract

Introduction: Patients and their loved ones experience variable degrees of fear and anxiety during cancer treatment. In such times, family becomes an integral part of the patient’s support system. Family members may also experience similar stress like health professionals while dealing with the patient’s diagnosis and its long term treatment. Objectives: The study was aimed at assessing the level of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among family caregivers of patients undergoing chemotherapy and to seek an association of compassion fatigue with selected demographic variables. Methods: In this exploratory descriptive study, 80 family caregivers were included with non-probability convenience sampling from the chemotherapy unit of tertiary care hospital. Data related to compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction were collected from family caretakers of patients visiting for the chemotherapy cycles with 27 point rating scale. Results: Mean compassion satisfaction and mean compassion fatigue was 41.16 and 52.35 respectively. Majority of caregivers 41 (51.2%) had average satisfaction level while 39 (48.8%) had high satisfaction level. In the case of assessment of the level of compassion fatigue, majority of participants (92.5%) had high compassion fatigue and only (7.5%) had moderate compassion fatigue. Monthly income was found to be significantly associated with the level of compassion satisfaction whereas relation with patients was found to be significantly associated with the level of compassion fatigue among caregivers. Conclusion: The findings of the study suggests that the caregivers had high to moderate compassion satisfaction while taking care of their loved ones during chemotherapy.