PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE AND COPING IN A REFERENCE HOSPITAL FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
ABSTRACT Objective: to verify the relationship between professional quality of life scores and coping strategies in the multidisciplinary health team that assists children and adolescents victims of sexual violence. Method: a cross-sectional study carried out in a public hospital of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Data collection took place from July to October 2018, using the Professional Quality of Life Scale and the Inventory of Coping Responses at Work. The analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. Regression was used for independent variables with p ≤ 0.05 in the bivariate analyses. Results: the professionals showed a medium level in the compassion satisfaction dimension (54.2%), medium level for secondary traumatic stress (50.8%), and medium level for Burnout (61%). Regarding the coping strategies, the decision-making strategy showed a weak correlation with the compassion satisfaction dimension (0.261), and the emotional extravasation strategy showed a moderate correlation with secondary traumatic stress (0.485) and Burnout (0.399). The female gender was associated with secondary traumatic stress (p=0.002). Conclusion: the identification of coping strategies such as decision-making can help the professionals to increase the levels of compassion satisfaction. In situations of suffering in daily work, management to avoid emotional extravasation should take place, preventing high levels of compassion fatigue. Such information is important to support public policies on occupational health, as well as programs to promote occupational health.