ArticleBMC psychiatry2024
Empathy fatigue among physicians and its influencing factors: a cross-sectional survey from Southwest China.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- [Compassion fatigue in rural primary care: a silent challenge for professional caregiving].Atencion primaria · 2026Article
- Article
- Assessment of the Level and Determinants of Empathy in Moroccan Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of advances in medical education & professionalism · 2026Article
- Harnessing the Neurobiology of Empathy and Compassion to Alleviate Burnout in Neurology.Annals of neurology · 2026Review
- Compassion fatigue among medical students and its relationship to medical career choice: a cross-sectional survey.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among nurses/midwives caring parents with pregnancy loss or infertility: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundEmpathy fatigue refers to the excessive empathy required of medical staff in the process of helping patients, which can produce traumatic experiences and emotional exhaustion. Severe empathy fatigue can even lead to medical disputes and errors, exacerbating increasingly tense doctor-patient relationships. Most studies on empathy fatigue focus on nurses, with few studies on physicians.
methodsA cross-sectional questionnaire was used to assess empathy fatigue among physicians in public tertiary general hospitals in southwest China using convenience sampling.
resultsA total of 562 physicians participated in the survey; average empathy satisfaction scores were 32.1 ± 6.85, 28.2 ± 5.30, and 26.2 ± 6.04 for empathy satisfaction disorder, job burnout, and secondary traumatic stress domains, respectively. We identified 291 (51.8%) physicians with severe empathy fatigue. Working two or three night shifts per week was associated with severe empathy fatigue. In total, 424 (75.4%) physicians had thoughts of resigning. Weekly rest time, empathic satisfaction disorder, job burnout, and secondary traumatic stress disorder influenced thoughts of resigning.
conclusionsThe majority of hospital physicians experience empathy fatigue and have considered resigning; this study provides reference data that demonstrate the extent of this issue. Efforts are urgently needed to address empathy fatigue in physicians and, therefore, increase physician retention.
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