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

Annabel Rushforth (), Mia Durk, Gabby A. A. Rothwell-Blake, Ann Kirkman, Fiona Ng and Yasuhiro Kotera
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Annabel Rushforth: College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK
Mia Durk: Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK
Gabby A. A. Rothwell-Blake: Independent Researcher, Sheffield S1 4RG, UK
Ann Kirkman: College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK
Fiona Ng: School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2TU, UK
Yasuhiro Kotera: School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2TU, UK

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 12, 1-14

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.

Keywords: secondary traumatic stress; self-compassion; compassion fatigue; health care worker; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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