Association of Pain Fear and Experience of Shame in Health Care Professionals.

Background: Pain as an experience affects person's behavior, which involves social, cultural and psychological factors. Shame is an internal process of social comparisons and acts as a warning mechanism for an impending threat. Objective: To evaluate the association between the fear of pain and the experience of shame in healthcare professionals. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Prefecture of Corinth in Greece. A random sample was selected among healthcare professionals. The final sample was 260 healthcare professionals. The duration of the study was from June to September 2017. The questionnaire included four sections: a) sociodemographic and professional profile of the sample b) the questionnaire «Other As Shame Scale (OAS)», c) the scale of shame's experience, based on Experience of Shame Scale (ESS) and d) the fear of painquestionnaire (FPQ). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used based on SPSS 25. Results: The mean age of the sample was 43.7 years and 78,5% was female. The total mean score of OAS was estimated at 13.7, of ESS 44.2 and of FPQ65.6 indicated that health professionals felt low external shame and moderate internal shame as well as fear of pain. The shame and self-esteem of health professionals were influenced by minor pain (β=0.500), age (β= -0.144) and stressful events during adult life(β=3.791). Moreover, the experience of shame was influenced by minor pain (β=0.595), age (β= -0.390), stressful events during adult life(β=4.512) and married life (β=4.261) Conclusion: The particular nature of health professionals' work and the constant direct or indirect contact with patient's pain probably facilitate the development of mental structures that affect emotional reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]