South African speech-language therapists' and audiologists' professional quality of life.
Victor M De Andrade, Cherilyn Da Silva, Nickey Israel
PMID 39221744WHAT IT FOUND
South African speech-language therapists and audiologists mostly reported average compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
Registration and experience did not differ in these levels. They described satisfaction from helping patients and supportive workplaces, and strain from caseloads, shortages, bureaucracy and emotional exposure.
Key findings
01Among 92 surveyed South African speech-language therapists and audiologists, most reported average levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress; 31 reported high compassion satisfaction, no participants reported high burnout, and 1 reported high secondary traumatic stress.
02Reported compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress did not differ between speech-language therapists, audiologists and dual registrants, or between different years-of-practice groups.
03Open-ended responses described satisfaction from effective care, patient progress and supportive work environments, and strain from high caseloads, staff and resource shortages, bureaucracy, trauma exposure and poor or terminal diagnoses.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was recruited by convenience and snowball sampling through professional associations, so people already interested in wellbeing may have been more likely to respond. The anonymous online survey was English-only, which may exclude people who do not use English or lack internet access. The ProQOL scale is a self-report screening measure, not a diagnostic tool for burnout or secondary traumatic stress. The cross-sectional design cannot show what causes higher or lower professional quality of life. Limited demographic information was collected to protect privacy, so factors such as age, workload and workplace support could not be examined.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is stated in the article text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the absence of high burnout scores as proof that South African speech-language therapists and audiologists are coping well. The survey was anonymous, convenience-based and self-reported, and participants still described substantial strain from caseloads, shortages, bureaucracy and emotional exposure.