| Correctional employees work in the capacity of helping professionals to one of the most high-risk and demanding populations. Despite the role of their job, the field of corrections has failed to be identified as a profession that the nature of compassion fatigue is likely to appear, resulting in the inability of correctional administrators to recognize the occurrence of compassion fatigue among correctional staff in spite of tell-tale signs in areas that would suggest otherwise. Using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (v5) to assess compassion fatigue and a demographic survey to gauge susceptibility based on years of in their positions, a quantitative, descriptive, comparative research method was applied to examine an n = 120 correctional staff in a medium security prison (i.e., 37 non-security and 87 security staff). The analysis of the research determined that there were no significant differences in the Pro-QOL subscale scores of burnout and secondary traumatic stress among neither group. Both cohorts scored in the low-to-average range on the burnout and secondary traumatic stress scale. While the results of the study did determine a significant difference between the two groups on the subscale scores of compassion satisfaction, both groups still scored between average to high on the compassion satisfaction subscale. Overall, based on the interpretive analysis according to the Professional Quality of Life Scale Manual, neither group identified with problems or symptoms associated with compassion fatigue. |
