Association of specialty and working hours with compassion fatigue

Objective: To find out association of speciality and working hours with compassion fatigue

Study Design: Cross sectional comparative study

Place and Duration of Study: Military Hospital and Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, Combined Military Hospital Sialkot, from December 2013 to July 2014

Material and Methods: Fifty four doctors from departments of Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesia and Gynaecology participated in the study. Other health care related personnel, not directly related to patient care, were excluded from the study. The data collection tool was a questionnaire "Professional Quality of Life Measure version 5". Data was analysed by SPSS version 22. Chi Square test for goodness of fit was used to determine difference in the frequency distribution of various categories of a single variable whereas Chi square test for independence was used to find association between two categorical variables. The p-value was kept at < 0.05 for significance

Results: Results showed 11 females and 43 males with mean age of 37.69 +/- 9.72 years. Cronbach's alpha was 0.81. Eleven participants [20.4%] showed low compassion fatigue, 37 [68.5%] showed average whereas only 6 participants [11.1%] showed high compassion fatigue scores and the difference was significant [p-value < 0.001]. Working hours were associated with compassion fatigue [p-value = 0.03] but speciality was not [p-value = 0.41]

Conclusion: Chances of suffering from compassion fatigue are significantly higher if working hours are 12 or more, however the disorder is not associated with speciality

Compassion fatigue amongst health care providers

To find out the frequency of compassion fatigue in health care providers in military hospitals. Cross sectional comparative study. Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute [AFPGMI] CMH Rawalpindi, MH Rawalpindi and CMH Sialkot from December 2013 to July 2014. Two hundred and fifty four health care professional participated in the study. The participants included doctors, nurses and male nursing assistants. The instrument for collecting data consisted of [Professional Quality of Life Measure version 5] [Pro QOL-5] questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using IBM SPSS version 22. The alpha value was set at <0.05 for significance. There were 128 male and 126 female participants with mean age of 31.72 +/- 8.28 years. Reliability of the questionnaire was determined by Cronbach's alpha which was calculated to be 0.81. Seventy nine participants [31.1%] showed low compassion fatigue, 168 [66.1%] showed average compassion fatigue whereas only 7 participants [2.8%] showed high compassion fatigue scores. The difference in frequency of three compassion fatigue levels was significant [p-value < 0.001]. Compassion fatigue was significantly different amongst doctors, nurses and nursing assistants [p-value < 0.01]. Compassion fatigue is higher in doctors as compared to para medical staff irrespective of gender

patterns and causes of neonatal mortality at a tertiary hospital in Oman

To report the patterns and causes of neonatal death from a tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit over a period of four years. This is a retrospective cohort study where four years data [January 2006 - December 2009] of all inborn neonatal admissions and deaths were collected from the neonatal intensive care unit at Sultan Qaboos University hospital on predesigned forms. All out born admissions and deaths were excluded. The causes of neonatal death were classified using Wigglesworth's classification. The number of inborn live births during the study period was 10064 and the total number of inborn neonatal admissions was 1475. The total deaths [neonatal and post neonatal] at the neonatal intensive care unit was 73 [63 inborn and 10 out born]. Among the inborn, five deaths were post neonatal deaths and hence, excluded from analysis. Among the remaining inborn neonatal deaths [n=58], 34 [59%] were males and 24 [41%] were females. The number of neonatal admissions increased over the years during the study period from 248 to 356, while the number of deaths also increased from 10 deaths in 2006, to 20 deaths in 2009. The primary causes of neonatal deaths were prematurity and its complications 52% [n=30]. Lethal congenital malformations lead to 17 [29%] newborn deaths, specific diagnosis in 7 newborns [12%], and birth asphyxia in four [7%] of cases. There was an increasing trend of neonatal admissions and deaths among inborn babies. Prematurity, with sepsis as its major complication and congenital malformations were the leading cause of neonatal mortality.

Arming the witches-a betrayal of professionalism

It is harvesting season of crop sowed in the last decade under the umbrella of Prime Minister Health Program as we are facing the complications of illegal abortions done by the health workers .It is to emphasize to the health workers and Health Program organizers to disengage from the practice objectives are to; estimate the frequency of its complications, discuss types of complications encountered with its mortality and morbidity and demonstrate the ways of its notification and prevention. All patients admitted with peritonitis due to illegal abortions were included in the study during one year period. Results showed alarming increase of illegal abortions complications [53% of total peritonitis cases] with most common injuries to colon or small bowel. Mortality was 6% and morbidity 94%. Conclusion were made that extensive technical and ethical training of health workers and surgeons are needed along with resurrection of regional ethical committee to look after the affairs