Aims
A meta‐analysis was conducted of the prevalence rates of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout to identify the factors influencing these rates.
Background
The extents of ...compassion fatigue and burnout adversely affect nursing efficiency. However, the reported prevalence rates vary considerably.
Methods
Data were acquired from electronic databases. Random effects meta‐analyses were performed to obtain pooled estimates of the prevalence rates of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout and their respective instrumental scores. Meta‐regression analyses were performed to identify factors influencing these rates.
Results
Data from 21 studies were used for the meta‐analysis. The prevalence rates of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout were 47.55%, 52.55% and 51.98%, respectively. The possession of Bachelor's or Master's degrees by the nurses was significantly inversely associated with the percent prevalence of compassion fatigue (coefficient: −1.187) and burnout (coefficient: −0.810). The compassion fatigue score was also significantly inversely associated with nursing status as registered or licensed practical nurse (coefficient: −0.135).
Conclusion
In nursing, the prevalence rates of compassion fatigue and burnout are high. Better education and training may have a moderating effect on compassion fatigue and burnout and could improve the quality of life of nurses.
Affective meditation on the Passionwas one of the most popular literary genres of the high and later Middle Ages. Proliferating in a rich variety of forms, these lyrical, impassioned, script-like ...texts in Latin and the vernacular had a deceptively simple goal: to teach their readers how to feel. They were thus instrumental in shaping and sustaining the wide-scale shift in medieval Christian sensibility from fear of God to compassion for the suffering Christ.Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassionadvances a new narrative for this broad cultural change and the meditative writings that both generated and reflected it. Sarah McNamer locates women as agents in the creation of the earliest and most influential texts in the genre, from John of Fécamp'sLibellusto theMeditationes vitae Christi, thus challenging current paradigms that cast the compassionate affective mode as Anselmian or Franciscan in origin. The early development of the genre in women's practices had a powerful and lasting legacy. With special attention to Middle English texts, including Nicholas Love'sMirrorand a wide range of Passion lyrics and laments,Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassionilluminates how these scripts for the performance of prayer served to construct compassion itself as an intimate and feminine emotion. To feel compassion for Christ, in the private drama of the heart that these texts stage, was to feel like a woman. This was an assumption about emotion that proved historically consequential, McNamer demonstrates, as she traces some of its legal, ethical, and social functions in late medieval England.
Objective
Two studies examined the efficacy of the Self‐Compassion for Healthcare Communities (SCHC) program for enhancing wellbeing and reducing burnout among healthcare professionals.
Method
Study ...1 (N = 58) had a quasi‐experimental design and compared wellbeing outcomes for the SCHC group compared to a waitlist control group. Study 2 (N = 23) did not include a control group and examined the effect of SCHC on burnout.
Results
Study 1 found that SCHC significantly increased self‐compassion and wellbeing. All gains were maintained for three months. Study 2 found that in addition to enhancing wellbeing, SCHC significantly reduced secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Changes in self‐compassion explained gains in other outcomes, and initial levels of self‐compassion moderated outcomes so that those initially low in self‐compassion benefitted more.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that the SCHC program may be an effective way to increase self‐compassion, enhance wellbeing, and reduce burnout for healthcare professionals.
This paper presents two studies focusing on the link between psychological functioning and self-compassion as measured by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), especially in terms of SCS components that ...represent increased compassionate and reduced uncompassionate behavior. Study One examined this association in seven domains - psychopathology, positive psychological health, emotional intelligence, self-concept, body image, motivation, and interpersonal functioning - and found that while reduced negative self-responding had a stronger link to negative emotionality and self-evaluation than positive self-responding, they were roughly equivalent predictors in other domains. Study Two examined the association of compassionate and reduced uncompassionate behavior with sympathetic nervous system and inflammatory activity after stress, and found they equally predicted salivary alpha amylase and interleukin-6 levels in individuals after a stressful situation. Overall, results suggest that both compassionate and reduced uncompassionate self-responding are central to self-compassion and that both help to explain its link to healthy psychological functioning.
Background: The Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) intervention targets psychosocial processes shown to be associated with weight loss maintenance. This study examined the feasibility and preliminary ...efficacy of adding a MSC program following standard behavioral weight loss (SBWL) treatment on changes in weight, internalized weight bias (IWB), and self-compassion. Methods: Women with Class III obesity (M BMI = 46.6; M age = 49; 82% White) and elevated IWB (Weight Bias Internalization Scale > 3; M. 5.1) received an initial group SBWL then were randomized to 8 weeks of subsequent MSC (n = 13) or cooking/dietary education (CON; n = 15). Weight and self-report measures of IWB and self-compassion were assessed at baseline, 4 months (post-SBWL), and 6 months (post-MSC/CON). Significant results are defined as p < .05. Results: CON attended more classes than MSC (95% vs. 86.2%). MSC was rated neutral for acceptability and appropriateness, with moderate satisfaction. Significant weight loss was observed in both groups at 4 months (MSC M = -6.3%; CON M = -6.2%) and 6 months (MSC M = -4.54%; CON M = -7.3%), with no difference by treatment arm. Self-compassion did not significantly change from baseline to 4 months for either condition (MSC M = 2.9 to 3.3; CON M = 3.1 to 3.3) yet increased at 6 months in MSC (M = 3.3 to 3.9) vs. CON (M = 3.3 to 3.2). In SBWL, IWB significantly reduced from baseline to 4 months for MSC (M = 5.0 to 3.9) vs. CON (M = 5.1 to 4.8), with no further changes between groups from 4 to 6 months (MSC M = 3.9 to 3.1; CON M = 4.8 to 4.5). Conclusions: From 4 to 6 months, MSC increased in self-compassion, but there was no change over time between groups in weight, or IWB. Although blinded to intervention assignment, SBWL reduced IWB among participants subsequently randomized to MSC, possibly dampening the effect of MSC on treatment targets and masking effects by treatment arm. Follow-up assessments at 9 months will be performed.
Objectives
The present pilot study sought to compare a compassion‐focused therapy (CFT)‐based self‐help intervention for binge eating disorder (BED) to a behaviourally based intervention.
Design
...Forty‐one individuals with BED were randomly assigned to 3 weeks of food planning plus self‐compassion exercises; food planning plus behavioural strategies; or a wait‐list control condition.
Methods
Participants completed weekly measures of binge eating and self‐compassion; pre‐ and post‐intervention measures of eating disorder pathology and depressive symptoms; and a baseline measure assessing fear of self‐compassion.
Results
Results showed that: (1) perceived credibility, expectancy, and compliance did not differ between the two interventions; (2) both interventions reduced weekly binge days more than the control condition; (3) the self‐compassion intervention reduced global eating disorder pathology, eating concerns, and weight concerns more than the other conditions; (4) the self‐compassion intervention increased self‐compassion more than the other conditions; and (5) participants low in fear of self‐compassion derived significantly more benefits from the self‐compassion intervention than those high in fear of self‐compassion.
Conclusions
Findings offer preliminary support for the usefulness of CFT‐based interventions for BED sufferers. Results also suggest that for individuals to benefit from self‐compassion training, assessing and lowering fear of self‐compassion will be crucial.
Practitioner points
Individuals with BED perceive self‐compassion training self‐help interventions, derived from CFT, to be as credible and as likely to help as behaviourally based interventions.
The cultivation of self‐compassion may be an effective approach for reducing binge eating, and eating, and weight concerns in individuals with BED.
Teaching individuals with BED CFT‐based self‐help exercises may increase their self‐compassion levels over a short period of time.
It may be important for clinicians to assess and target clients' fear of self‐compassion for clients to benefit from self‐compassion training interventions.
Self-compassion refers to being supportive toward oneself when experiencing suffering or pain-be it caused by personal mistakes and inadequacies or external life challenges. This review presents my ...theoretical model of self-compassion as comprised of six different elements: increased self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness as well as reduced self-judgment, isolation, and overidentification. It discusses the methodology of self-compassion research and reviews the increasingly large number of empirical studies that indicate self-compassion is a productive way of approaching distressing thoughts and emotions that engenders mental and physical well-being. It also reviews research that dispels common myths about self-compassion (e.g., that it is weak, selfish, self-indulgent or undermines motivation). Interventions designed to increase self-compassion, such as compassion-focused therapy and mindful self-compassion, are discussed. Finally, the review considers problematic issues in the field, such as the differential effects fallacy, and considers limitations and future research directions in the field of self-compassion research.
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