Exploring of factors affecting compassion fatigue in medical social workers

Having a traumatic experience does not only affect the trauma victim, but also these experiences affect social workers who work in medical centre, which may result in compassion fatigue. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that lead to compassion fatigue in social workers. With this respect, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 medical social workers working in health care institutions in Ankara, and the data was collected using a semi-structured interview form between June 2022 and August 2022. The data were analysed by using the method of thematic analysis via MAXQDA 2022 program and manually. The following themes regarding medical social workers' experiences with compassion fatigue emerged from in-depth interviews: 1) working in hospital, 2) working with clients who have experienced trauma, and 3) needing of psychosocial support. As a result, lack of psychosocial support, cases encountered, empathic approach, and caseload are at the forefront of factors influencing compassion fatigue. Improving professionals' well-being and job satisfaction and protecting them from indirect trauma, such as compassion fatigue, requires services and practices delivered at the micro, mezzo, and macro dimensions. Key Words Medical social worker, compassion fatigue, social work