Context: Being a professional care provider at cancer palliative care settings is demanding and stressful. Literature has indicated the prevalence of high burnout (BO) and distress; however, there is a dearth of studies in India, with no study available on professional quality of life in the field of palliative care.
Aims: The aim of the present study was to explore the professional quality of life, namely-compassion satisfaction [CS], burnout [BO], and secondary traumatic stress [STS] among professional care providers at cancer palliative care centers.
Settings and design: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and quantitative study was carried out at four cancer palliative care centers in Bengaluru after the permissions and ethical approvals.
Subjects and methods: The tools used were brief sociodemographic datasheet and professional quality of life (ProQoL)-Version 5 administered with 65 participants (mean age = 32.5 and standard deviation = 11.78) with work experience of at least 6 months.
Analysis: A descriptive, correlational, and inferential analysis of the quantitative data was undertaken.
Results: The results revealed that an average level of CS and BO was reported by 32 (49.2%) and 35 (53.8%) study participants, respectively, while 62 (95.4%) participants reported higher STS on ProQoL scale-Version 5. Significant differences in levels of CS, BO, and STS were found based on additional training taken in palliative care (P = 0.01), designation type (P < 0.001), and workplace type (P = 0.01).
Conclusion: The overall results strongly suggest that a short intervention targeting STS and BO can help the study population and further enhance their CS and patient care.
Keywords: Burnout; compassion satisfaction; palliative care professionals; secondary traumatic stress.