Through the eyes of healthcare professionals: Compassion fatigue and earthquake stress coping strategies of healthcare professionals in the disaster region following the Kahramanmaras centered earthquakes: A case-control study

Background: Healthcare professionals serving in the earthquake zone may experience mental problems due to the traumatic events they witnessed. Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of working in earthquake-affected areas on compassion fatigue and coping strategies for earthquake stress in healthcare professionals compared to a control group. Methods: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted in three provinces in the northern region of Türkiye. The sample of the study consisted of 146 healthcare professionals working in earthquake-affected regions and 143 healthcare professionals not working in earthquake-affected regions. Data were collected using the ‘Descriptive Information Form’, ‘Compassion Fatigue Short Scale (CF-SS)’, and ‘Coping with Earthquake Stress Scale (CESS)’. Descriptive statistics, t -test for independent samples, Pearson correlation analysis and binary logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between healthcare professionals working in earthquake-affected regions and healthcare professionals not working in these regions in terms of CF-SS total scores, ‘occupational burnout’ sub-dimension mean scores and ‘seeking social support’ mean scores among CESS sub-dimension mean scores ( p .05). A high and positive correlation ( r = .805; r = .847; r = .847; r = .695, p