Exploring the professional quality of life of South African audiologists.
Senamile G Ntuli, Ben Sebothoma, Nabeelah Nagdee and 1 others
South African audiologists reported moderate compassion satisfaction and moderate compassion fatigue, with burnout and secondary traumatic stress on the lower end.
Older, more experienced audiologists had higher satisfaction scores. Resilience and coping tracked with better well-being.
Key findings
1Audiologists reported moderate compassion satisfaction (mean 40.18) and moderate compassion fatigue (mean 46.29), with burnout (mean 24.01) and secondary traumatic stress (mean 22.27) lower. All scores are on a 10-to-50 scale.
2Older audiologists (36 and over) and those with more than 5 years of experience had significantly higher compassion satisfaction scores than their younger, less experienced peers.
3Burnout was strongly and negatively correlated with compassion satisfaction (r = -0.73), and self-reported resilience was positively correlated with satisfaction while negatively correlated with burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress.
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How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The achieved sample was 73 audiologists against an intended 283, limiting statistical power for subgroup comparisons and increasing the risk of missing real differences. Recruitment was through professional networks and social media, so audiologists with stronger views or more distress may have been overrepresented. The sample was 92% female, predominantly under 36, and concentrated in private practice and public hospitals, so findings may not reflect male audiologists, older practitioners, or those in schools and rural clinics. Resilience and coping were each measured with a single self-report item that has not been psychometrically validated, so they capture subjective perception rather than a standardised construct. No adjustment for multiple comparisons was applied across the many correlation tests, so some smaller associations may be unstable. The cross-sectional, self-report design means no causal claims can be made about what drives burnout or satisfaction.
Declared interests
The authors state the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the moderate compassion satisfaction score as evidence that audiologists are doing well. Just over half the sample (53%) fell in the moderate burnout range, and the qualitative data describe emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and thoughts of leaving the profession.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →