Revisiting the Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, Compassion Satisfaction, and Resilience Connection Among CISM Responders

Abstract

Previous research by Burnett and Wahl found that resilience moderately mediated the association between compassion fatigue (CF) and burnout (BO) among trauma responders. No studies have attempted to replicate and verify the research results of Burnett and Wahl. This study examined whether similar patterns of resilience, CF, BO, and compassion satisfaction (CS) would be found among a convenience sample of disaster behavioral health (DBH) responders (N = 70) attending an annual Critical Incident Stress Management training conference in Michigan. Measures included the 30-item Professional Quality of Life Scale, the 14-Item Resilience Scale, the Response to Stressful Events Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Similar to the Burnett and Wahl’s study, resilience was found to have a significant negative correlation between CF and BO. Mediation analysis similarly found that resilience moderately mediated the relationship between CF and BO among both resilience measures.