Adams et al reported a shortened version of the Compassion Fatigue Scale of Figley. The authors are from the New York Academy of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida State University.
Component 1:
(1) feeling trapped by work
(2) sense of hopelessness working with clients
(3) felt tired due to work as caregiver
(4) felt depressed as a result of work
(5) unsuccessful at separating work from personal life
(6) sense of worthlessness associated with work
(7) felt like a failure at work
(8) thoughts about not achieving goals
Component 2:
(1) flashbacks connected to clients
(2) troubling dreams similar to client's
(3) intrusive thoughts after working with difficult clients
(4) suddenly recalled frightening experiences while working with client
(5) losing sleep over client's traumatic experience
Each item is scored on a Likert scale from 1 (never or rare) to 10 (very often)
subscore for component 1 =
= SUM(points for all 8 items)
subscore for component 2 =
= SUM(points for all 5 items)
total score =
= SUM(points for all of the items)
Interpretation:
• minimum subscore for component 1: 8
• minimum score for component 2: 5
• minimum total score: 13
• maximum subscore for component 1: 80
• maximum subscore for component 2: 50
• maximum total score: 130
