The relationship between professional commitment level and compassion fatigue and patience behavior in midwives in turkey

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: In midwifery, compassion and patience are two very important concepts for doing the profession well. Having compassion and patience towards women who are in pain and in need of help is one of the characteristics that a midwife should have. These two concepts are directly related to professional belonging. A midwife with professional belonging has the characteristics required by the profession. This study aims to investigate the relationship between professional belonging and compassion fatigue and patience behavior of midwives in our country. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional research was conducted with midwives working in Turkey with an online survey form between January 1 and November 15, 2023. The sample of the study consisted of 508 midwives working in Turkey, who accepted the research and met the criteria for inclusion in the research, using simple random selection. "Midwife Introduction Form", "Midwifery Belonging Scale (EAS)", "Compassion Fatigue Brief Scale (MYÖS)", "Patience Scale (PAS)" were used to collect the data. FINDINGS: It was found that 63.4% of the midwives participating in the study were between 26-35 years of age, 52% were single, 87.8% were undergraduate graduates, 38.4% worked in the delivery room, 60.2% had 1-5 years in the profession, 81.1% worked in shifts, 81.5% were not members of the association, 80.1% worked in a state hospital, 93.7% were not satisfied with their salary. A low-level negative significant relationship was found between the midwives' professional belonging scale and the compassion fatigue scale in general, and a moderately positive significant relationship with the patience scale. A low level negative relationship was found between the Compassion Fatigue scale and the Patience scale. CONCLUSION: In the study, it was found that as midwives' professional affiliation increased, compassion fatigue decreased and patience behavior increased. Considering the results of the research, it is recommended to conduct further studies on the level of professional belonging of midwives, compassion fatigue and patience behavior. Keywords: Belonging, midwifery, compassion fatigue, professional belonging, patience behavior