The Relationship between Empathy, Coping Strategies, and Compassion Fatigue in Doctors

Abstract

Objective: The present study explored the relationship between empathy, coping strategies and compassion fatigue among doctors.

Design: Correlational Survey Design

Place and Duration of the Study: Pakistan, July 2019 to January 2020.

Subjects and Method: The research was conducted on a sample of 153 doctors (Male=52, Female=101), aged 22-70 (M=34.08, SD=9.914). Purposiveconvenience sampling was used in this research. Coping Response Inventory (Moos, 1993), Toronto Empathy Questionnaire and Professional Quality of Life were used to assess the variables.

Results and Conclusion: Findings of the current research highlighted a significant weak positive correlation between Approach Coping and Empathy. Moreover, the results of the current study highlighted a non-significant weak inverse correlation between Approach Coping strategies and Compassion Fatigue. Furthermore, Avoidance Coping was found to have a significant weak positive correlation with Empathy and Compassion Fatigue. Lastly, a nonsignificant weak positive correlation was observed to exist between Empathy and Compassion Fatigue. Linear regression shows that empathy predicts copying approach and avoidance copying styles, whereas avoidance copying predicts compassion fatigue.