A National Cross-Sectional Assessment of Emotional Labor and Compassion Fatigue Among Emergency Response Personnel in Turkey

Objective This aimed to examine the levels of emotional labour and compassion fatigue among 112 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE) personnel deployed in disaster zones, and to explore their associations with sociodemographic and occupational factors. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted between January and May 2024 among 405 EMS and UMKE personnel from Ankara, Konya, Kayseri, and Antalya provinces in Turkey. Data were collected using a three-part questionnaire: demographic form, the Compassion Fatigue Scale (revised by Adams et al.), and the Emotional Labour Scale (developed by Diefendorff et al.). Confirmatory factor analyses with bootstrap resampling (n = 10,000) assessed construct validity, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients evaluated reliability. Group comparisons were performed using t-tests, ANOVA, Mann–Whitney U, and Kruskal–Wallis tests, with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Spearman’s correlation examined relationships between variables. Results Significant differences in compassion fatigue and its subdimensions were observed by age, gender, marital status, education level, working style, and professional title (p < 0.05). Emotional labour scores also varied significantly by age, gender, marital status, education level, and working style (p < 0.05). Positive correlations were found between compassion fatigue and emotional labour dimensions, suggesting a psychosocial interplay between these constructs in high-stress disaster contexts. Conclusion Findings highlight the psychosocial burden faced by emergency medical and disaster response personnel in Turkey’s disaster zones. Targeted mental health support, resilience-building interventions, and organisational strategies are essential to mitigate compassion fatigue and manage emotional labour demands in this population.