Individual and environmental factors affecting the professional life quality of health professionals working in pediatric clinics

This research was conducted to identify the individual and environmental factors affecting the life quality of health professionals working in pediatric clinics. The sample of the study consists of 128 health care professionals who work in Pediatric Clinics of Sakarya University Education and Research Hospital, Private ADATIP Hospital, Private BEYHEKIM Hospital and Private BILGE Hospital. The data of the study were collected by using the Questionnaire Form, Quality of Life Scale for Employees (QoLSE) and Compassion Scale (CS) which were formed by the researchers. The data obtained from the study were evaluated using number, percentage, average, correlation analysis, Mann Whitney U and Kruskall Wallis tests. It was determined that health professionals were negatively affected by child deaths and experienced positive interventions. The average score of QoLSE Professional Satisfaction Sub-Dimension of the health professionals participating in the research is 33.54 ± 9.77, the average score of Burnout Sub-Dimension is 18.44 ± 6.59, the average score of Equivalent Fatigue Sub-Dimension is 15.49 ± 6.85 and the average total CS score is 3.96 ± 0.53. It was found that female health professionals had higher levels of professional satisfaction and male health professionals had higher levels of burnout. Besides, the average score of professional satisfaction of doctors was lower than that of nurses and midwives and the average score of burnout and empathy fatigue was higher. On the other hand, occupational satisfaction was lower in the on-duty workers, occupational satisfaction was higher and burnout was low in the private hospital workers. The total CS score average of female health care professionals was statistically higher than male health care professionals (p <0.05). It is concluded that further studies are needed to help improve the factors affecting the quality of life of health professionals working in pediatric clinics.