The effect of cognitive fusion on mental health and occupational burnout among health care workers during the SARS CoV-2 outbreak

positive dimension, reflecting "the pleasure you derive from being able to do your work well.For example, you may feel like it is a pleasure to help others through your work.You may feel positively about your colleagues or your ability to contribute to the work setting or even the greater good of society".Compassion Fatigue (CF) represents the negative dimension of professional quality of life.It, in turn, includes two subdomains: Burnout (BO) and Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS).Burnout is characterized by chronic emotional and physical exhaustion, frustration, and a sense of inefficacy, often resulting from prolonged exposure to demanding work environments.It typically develops gradually and is associated with feelings of hopelessness, decreased job performance, and the perception that one's efforts are futile.Contributing factors may include excessive workload, lack of support, and organizational stressors.Secondary Traumatic Stress, on the other hand, refers to the emotional distress that arises from indirect exposure to traumatic experiences through one's work with affected individuals.STS symptoms may include intrusive thoughts, sleep disturbances, hypervigilance, and avoidance behaviors related to the trauma encountered by those being helped (Stamm, 2005)."Using the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL), Su and colleagues (2021) conducted a large-scale study into hospital staff in Taiwan, and found moderate levels of burnout (mean: 24.9), low levels of compassion fatigue (CF) (mean score: 20.9) but moderate levels of compassion satisfaction (CS) (mean score: 32).Perhaps, as some authors have proposed, a sense of purpose and of undertaking a shared mission could increase CS and possibly protect HCWs from lasting distress (Dwyer et al., 2021).Therefore compassion satisfaction could represent a protective factor in reducing stress and depression, as confirmed in other findings (Ruiz-Fernandez et al.,