Engagement and empathy of health professionals working to combat covid-19 in pernambuco

This study aimed to evaluate the level of empathic feelings of health professionals in the care of patients with COVID-19 in health services in Pernambuco. This is a descriptive cut with exploratory quantitative approach, WebSurvey type, in which the sampling was Snowball. Data collection took place from July to August 2021, conducted with professionals active in COVID-19 in the state of Pernambuco. It was approved by the ethics committee under the number CAAE 46373221.2.0000.5569. 69 individuals completed the survey, of the total 82.6% were women, with a mean age between 30 and 39 years (40.4%), being nurse (63.7%), Nursing Technician (a) (20.3%) and Physicians (15.9%), who worked at hospitals in the metropolitan region of Recife (79.70%). The professionals evaluated in this study are empathic and engaged in the work. The presence of cognitive empathy becomes a protective factor since we can say that this feeling is an important predictor for compassion fatigue and consequently for burnout, because it is an accumulative and intense process. The findings of the research reinforce that health professionals are empathic and engage in work. However, these excess factors may be a cause of mental health illness.