Effect of Professional Ownership on Compassion Fatigue and Quality of Life among Midwives

Abstract

Objective: Most of the midwives who are responsible for maternal and child health are employed in many areas other than their own clinic and their sense of professional belonging is destroyed. Removing midwives from the units where they should be the most active negatively affects both women's health and the occupational belonging status of midwives. In such a case, it is thought that midwives will lose their professional roles, their professional belonging will be negatively affected and their quality of life may be negatively affected. For this reason, the research was conducted to determine the effect of professional belonging on the quality of life of midwives. Method: The descriptive and cross-sectional design to study was conducted in primary and secondary healthcare institutions in a province located in eastern Turkey. The research was conducted with 525 midwives between January 2020 and April 2021. The data of the study were collected with the personal introduction form, the midwifery belonging scale and the quality of life scale for the employees. In statistical analysis; number, percentage, mean and correlation analysis were used. Results: The average age of the midwives was 33.02 ± 7.51, 76.6% of midwives are undergraduate, 62.4% of them are married, It was determined that 46.8% of them were equal to the expenses of their income levels. The mean total score of the midwives' belonging scale was determined as 75.99 ± 18.94. Compassion satisfaction from the sub-dimensions of the midwives' quality of life scale; 28.91 ± 10.06, compassion fatigue; 23.18 ± 9.55, burnout; it was found that they had a mean score of 23.23 ± 5.89. In addition, it was determined that there is a moderate positive correlation with professional satisfaction, which is one of the sub-dimensions of the quality of life scale, with the mean total score of midwifery belonging, and a low level of significant relationship in the negative direction with burnout. There was no relationship between midwifery belonging and compassion fatigue, which is the last sub-dimension of quality of life. Conclusion: In our study, it was determined that there is a significant relationship between midwifery belonging and professional satisfaction and burnout in midwives. It was concluded that midwifery belonging is an important concept in increasing professional satisfaction and reducing burnout in midwives. It is thought that the result of the research is important in terms of being a guide for studies on midwifery belonging.