From the Asociación RUVID press release via AlphaGalileo:
Working in an environment of continuous contact with suffering and death, in which far-reaching decisions have to be made urgently as in the case of intensive care units, takes its toll to the psychological condition of health staff. The collective percentage of depression reaches 20%, of anxiety 7%, and the risk of developing compassion fatigue 12% and burnout 3%. This is reflected in the study on the psychological consequences it has for health staff working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) developed by the researchers at the Universitat Jaume I Rafael Ballester and Sandra Gómez, who stress the need to develop intervention strategies to prevent or reduce symptoms associated with this work.
Once identified the factors that influence on the emotional distress of professionals, researchers at the Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology believe that this intervention should include, among others, issues such as psychoeducation, to create opportunities for emotional release, strengthen interpersonal ties among the group members and training in psychological techniques to help them to cope with the emotional impact their daily activity generates.
To develop the research “Emotional state of health professionals in intensive care units (ICU’s): modulating factors” have been evaluated 117 health professionals in the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital General de Castelló, analyzing aspects such as anxiety and depression, which are the factors that produce them stress, compassion fatigue or burnout. The staff has listed as the most stressful elements overwork or the lack of human resources to meet needs. They also consider other factors related to specific features of work in an ICU, such as the need to make decisions quickly, the consequences that may result from these decisions, time pressure, lack of regulated breaks or the devaluation of the profession. “These factors are a priori difficult to change because they are not personal but are imposed by the context. Yet it would be interesting to try to develop prevention and intervention strategies that possibly would improve the perception about them and their coping. Of course, the data also denounce the lack of resources available to our professionals”, stresses Rafael Ballester.
The research shows that about 12% of ICU staff is at risk for compassion fatigue, that is, they can have difficulties to meet their own feelings, hopelessness, helplessness and anger in response to stress suffered by seeing their patients going through serious medical conditions. Moreover 3% presented a risk of burnout. It is as Sandra Gómez says, “the feeling of exhaustion, disappointment and loss of interest in work activity, which arises especially in those engaged in service professions, as a result of daily contact with their work.”
The paper also stresses the content that professionals feel when helping others. Thus, “the health staff at the ICU would be at a medium level of satisfaction with the compassion they provide to patients. Regarding demographic variables, women are the most satisfied and the medical staff is the least satisfied and most at risk of compassion fatigue in comparison with the nursing staff “, says Sandra Gomez.