ఇంటర్నేషనల్ జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ఎమర్జెన్సీ మెంటల్ హెల్త్ అండ్ హ్యూమన్ రెసిలెన్స్

నైరూప్య

A Descriptive Study to Assess Compassion Fatigue among Caregivers of Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy in Selected Tertiary Care Centre

Ujjwala Murkute, Ujjawala Veer

Diagnosis of cancer almost always creates a situation of crisis for patients and their families. Patients and their loved ones experiences variable degree of fear and anxiety while going through process of cancer treatment. Moreover cancer management involves variety of treatment modalities each of which takes considerable time duration. In such times, family becomes integral part of patient’s support system. Even though the term ‘compassion fatigue used mainly for health care professional but family members may also experience the similar stress while dealing with patient’s diagnosis and it’s long term treatment. Because of minimal knowledge and uncertainty of treatment outcome family members may face tough decision making situations which can be traumatic for them and may result into burn out. Objectives: The study was aimed at assessing the level of compassion fatigue among family caregivers of patients undergoing chemotherapy. The study also had secondary objective of associating the level of compassion fatigue with selected demographic variables. Methods: Exploratory descriptive design was used in study. 80 family care givers were included with non-probability convenience sampling at chemotherapy unit of tertiary care hospital. Data related to compassion fatigue was collected from family care takers of patients visiting for 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 case of assessment of level of compassion fatigue, majority of participants 74 (92.5%) had high compassion fatigue and only 6 (7.5%) had moderate compassion fatigue. None of participant reported low compassion fatigue as well as low compassion satisfaction. Monthly income is found significantly associated with level of compassion satisfaction whereas relation with patient found significantly associated with level of compassion fatigue among care givers. Other socio-demographic variables like age, gender, education, occupation & period of care giving are not significantly associated with compassion satisfaction or compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction is significantly correlated and is inversely proportionate to each other. Conclusion: As a result of increased outpatient services & shorter hospital stay supportive home care has become integral part of patient’s management. Moreover due to improved survival rates and quality of life for cancer patient families have started becoming accommodative towards this trend. But sometimes family member assume role of caregiver under sudden and extreme circumstances. Caring for a family member with cancer can be physically and emotionally very challenging. The findings of the study suggest that compassion fatigue is extremely common experience among caregivers of patient undergoing chemotherapy. Family caregivers being patient’s essential partners in the delivery of complex health care services, their mental health needs should recognised and effective strategies should be planned by health care workers to help them deal with stressful situations.