The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked new conversations across various industries with the question, “How have we been changed by the pandemic, and should we keep doing things the way we always have?”

Universities and colleges have not been strangers to the conversation. An introspective exchange between Amy Benton, associate professor at Samford University’s Orlean Beeson School of Education, and her longtime friend and colleague, Angela Girdley with Grand Canyon University, spawned an idea for a study of compassion fatigue among clergy.

“We are hearing a lot about compassion fatigue among teachers, social workers, nurses, and others and my colleague questioned if the same applied to those in church ministry,” Benton said. “So, we began diving into the literature. Is there a need for this study? Who would care about it? As it turned out, there is a huge gap where people are not looking at clergy as it relates to this conversation.”

 Compassion fatigue, a condition characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, is common among service-oriented professions that are frequently exposed to trauma and the subsequent treatment of that trauma. Sometimes referenced as the high cost of compassion, it has been most often attributed to healthcare professionals and frontline workers.

When comparing her research with existing data on other occupations, Benton found that clergy members ranked as the second highest group to experience burnout, just behind ICU nurses and ahead of trauma nurses, army chaplains, hospital chaplains, emergency room doctors and child protection workers. She also found that clergy members experience secondary traumatic stress the most, ahead of the aforementioned groups.

Benton and Girdley have been thrilled about the outpouring of support for and interest in their research.

“We knew we wanted a robust sample size to communicate that this entire population was saying something. We sent a link out to people we thought would be interested in the survey and we recruited on social media, and that was a springboard. Many started asking us about the research and asking us to speak at their conferences,” Benton said.

The two received data from 410 clergy members from across the United States establishing the finding that this group experiences extremely high levels of compassion fatigue, secondary trauma and occupational distress.

“One of the survey questions we asked was, ‘Did you attend some type of seminary school?’ The second question was, ‘Did you feel prepared to deal with these things in your ministry?’” Benton said.

Benton says most responded to the second question with “no,” they did not feel prepared. She says the implication of this finding is far reaching and applies broadly to institutions of higher education that prepare those entering professions where compassion fatigue is a risk factor for burnout.

“We want our work to be thought provoking for seminaries and higher education, in general; we hope our research will influence curriculum,” Benton said.

Benton and Girdley presented their work to the Disciple Leaders Network, a ministry of the Baptist Association of Christian Educators (BACE) that supports church staff members, denominational leaders, and educators in their ministerial roles. Benton’s findings provide information on an understudied population and contribute knowledge about the importance of self-care as a personal resource.