This study was designed to prepare fundamental data on human resources management plans by identifying the effects of personal and job related factors on compassion satisfaction and fatigue, focusing on social workers in the field of alcoholism.
This ...
This study was designed to prepare fundamental data on human resources management plans by identifying the effects of personal and job related factors on compassion satisfaction and fatigue, focusing on social workers in the field of alcoholism.
This study surveyed 200 participants who were social workers providing social services to alcoholics and participating in such cases. For research purposes, seven participants were excluded from social welfare who were found to be not currently (2018) providing services to alcoholics, including those who gave wrong answer to the question, or gave a final response that was made with misunderstanding. Data collection was conducted from March 19, 2018 to April 7, 2018, using the Google Dogs system and paper questionnaire.
The main findings of this study are :
Firstly, compassion satisfaction of social workers in the field of alcoholism was found to be above normal, and compassion fatigue below normal.
Secondly, among the individual factors of the survey participants, there was a statistically significant difference between satisfactions depending on age, academic background, and the presence of a spouse. Among the job related factors, it showed a statistically significant difference in the level of compassion and fatigue, depending on the type of employment agency and whether the employee holds a license related to addiction.
Thirdly, in the analysis of the correlation between compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue, the individual and job related factors of the survey participants engaged in education related to age, academic background, marital status, addiction, and annual average addiction showed a statistically significant positive (+) association. On the other hand, the existence of clinical treatment-related certificates, work experiences related to addiction, number of cases per month, and the number of times the annual average number of cases of training related to addiction showed a statistically significant negative (-) relationship.
Fourthly, as a result of conducting multiple linear regression analyses to determine factors affecting compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue, the number of cases in which it affects compassion satisfaction was related to the number of cases in which it was used and the average number of cases in question. Whereas, factors affecting compassion fatigue appeared to be the type of work organization.
The above findings have the following implications regarding social welfare practices.
Firstly, studies have been conducted on various topics of social welfare, but studies on social workers who are involved in the alcoholic field, which can be referred to as the special field had not been conducted sufficiently. Therefore, this study holds great academic significance in its study of social workers in the field of alcoholism.
Secondly, the previously conducted studies on the quality of professional life in Korea was conducted primarily on nurses, in a variety of special fields (clinical nurses, emergency rooms, tumor units, etc.) as well as nurses in general wards. In the field of social welfare, however, research into the quality of professional life is minimal. In this context, this study presents academic significance with its quantitative studies conducted on social workers in the field of alcoholism, which is part of the field of mental health among social workers. Thirdly, this study is meaningful in that it introduced the Korean language ProQOL scale rather than the existing ProQOL scale of quality of professional life.
In a study conducted by Kim Yong-seok et al(2016), Korean language version ProQOL was introduced by founding 30 questions on the original diagnosis scale to be suitable for the clinical site in Korea and positively effective for the substantiation on the social worker, which could be used to measure both the compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue levels. Therefore, starting with this research, it can be expected that the Korean language version ProQOL scale, which is suitable for Korea's social welfare practice, can be used in various field of practice.
Fourthly, although ‘compassion’ has been defined as ‘an act of feeling pity for others and help others driven by emotion’ by so far, In this study, 'compassion' was redefined as the source of psychological concerns that social workers naturally had toward their clients and the activities on which they were allowed to provide intervention and welfare services. Thus, the core skill that social workers need to have, namely, are redefined and used by this study as the term 'empathy', which is to respond by understanding the client's feelings and thoughts, and 'compassion', which is to have a strong desire to ease the client's pain.
Fifthly, the level of compassion satisfaction of social workers in the field of alcoholism was higher than average and the level of compassion fatigue was below average. In a study conducted on social workers using the Korean ProQOL scale(Kim Yong-seok, 2017), it showed similar results as compassion satisfaction showed a level above normal, and compassion fatigue below normal. Thus, it is considered to have significant meaning in that the Korean language ProQOL scale was used to measure the social workers' compassion level by setting up different clinical sites and samples for each of the three different clinical sites as in this study(Kim Yong-seok, 2017; Kim Yong-seok et al, 2016a).
Sixthly, the factors affecting compassion satisfaction analyzed through regression revealed that the number of cases in a month and the number of times a year spent participating in annual training related to addiction were the influencing factors. On the other hand, the results showed that compassion level is affected by the type of work organization. Regression analysis revealed that the factors that primarily affect compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue were related to task related factors, and that personal factors were not influential.
Therefore, it is believed that active research should be carried out to analyze the cause and personality of social workers in the field of alcoholism to introduce various variables.
On the other hand, this study has limitations in comparing the level of compassion at other practical sites due to the lack of previously conducted studies using Korean ProQOL, and in relation to the limitations of sampling, personal factors, and tasks associated with the study. Therefore, follow-up study is required for further improvement of the study.