Health care professionals in COVID-19 pandemic: The predictive power of five factor personality traits and resilience on compassion fatigue

The aim of this study is to examine the predictability of five factor personality traits and resilience levels on compassion fatigue and sub-dimension scores in health care workers. Relational model was used in the study and there are 697 health care professionals from different occupational groups, especially nurses, physicians and midwives. Personal Information Form, Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale, Adjective Based Personality Test and Brief Psychological Resilience Scale were used as data collection tools. The data were analyzed with the SPSS 25.0 statistical program. Pearson Moments Product Correlation Coefficient, Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis, independent groups t-test, One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H Test were used to answer the problems put forward in the study. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to examine the relationship between five-factor personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeability, openness, conscientiousness) and resilience with compassion fatigue and sub-dimension scores. Hierarchical Multiple Lineer Regression Analyses were conducted to examine the predictive power of independent variables on compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. In addition, working status in a unit related to COVID-19 is included as a dummy variable in each regression analysis. According to the beta coefficient (β) neuroticism, resilience, and work related to COVID-19 variables explain 26,2 % of the total variance of compassion fatigue, respectively. It was found that compassion fatigue and sub-dimension scores differ according to gender, education level, profession, working status (daytime-shift), thought of leaving the job, workload perception, job stress, working with COVID-19, perceived increase in workload, difficulty in adapting to the new normal and anxiety about being contagious. On the other hand, it was observed that age, marital status and tenure did not cause a significant difference in compassion fatigue and sub-dimension scores. Compassion fatigue and sub-dimension scores differ significantly only in the secondary traumatic stress dimension according to having a child. In the last part of the study, recommendations are presented within the framework of the results. Key Words: Compassion Fatigue, Five Factor Personality Traits, Resilience, COVID-19, Health Care Workers