Self-Compassion Interventions to Target Secondary Traumatic Stress in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review

Rushforth, Annabel; Durk, Mia; Rothwell-Blake, Gabby A.A.; Kirkman, Ann; Ng, Fiona; Kotera, Yasuhiro

Abstract

Healthcare professionals’ wellbeing can be adversely affected by the intense demands of, and the secondary traumatic stress associated with, their job. Self-compassion is associated with positive wellbeing outcomes across a variety of workforce populations and is potentially an important skill for healthcare workers, as it offers a way of meeting one’s own distress with kindness and understanding. This systematic review aimed to synthesise and evaluate the utility of self-compassion interventions in reducing secondary traumatic stress in a healthcare worker population. Eligible articles were identified from research databases, including ProQuest, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and EBSCO. The quality of non-randomised and randomised trials was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. The literature search yielded 234 titles, from which 6 studies met the inclusion criteria. Four studies reported promising effects of self-compassion training for secondary traumatic stress in a healthcare population, although these did not use controls. The methodological quality of these studies was medium. This highlights a research gap in this area. Three of these four studies recruited workers from Western countries and one recruited from a non-Western country. The Professional Quality of Life Scale was used to evaluate secondary traumatic stress in all studies. The findings show preliminary evidence that self-compassion training may improve secondary traumatic stress in healthcare professional populations; however, there is a need for greater methodological quality in this field and controlled trials. The findings also show that the majority of research was conducted in Western countries. Future research should focus on a broader range of geographical locations to include non-Western countries.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 5, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 12, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-06
• Deposit Date: Jun 16, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 20, 2023
• Journal: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Print ISSN: 1661-7827
• Electronic ISSN: 1660-4601
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 12
• Article Number: 6109
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20126109
• Keywords: secondary traumatic stress; self-compassion; compassion fatigue; health care worker; systematic review
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/21917762
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/12/6109