Investigation of Compassion Fatigue in the Emergency Department Nurses: A Cross-sectional Study from Northwest of Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: In today's modern society, work-related stress has been accepted as a job threat which can reduce compassion satisfaction and cause compassion fatigue. Healthcare providers in critical care and emergency departments may experience high levels of compassion fatigue, which will lead to an impaired quality of professional life. Therefore, this study sought to Investigation of compassion fatigue in the nurses of the emergency departments of the hospitals in Ardabil.

Material and Methods: The current cross-sectional (descriptive correlational) study was conducted using consensus sampling. The study population comprised all nurses working in the emergency departments of hospitals in Ardabil in 2022. Data were gathered using standard questionnaire compassion fatigue by Figley (2002). The data were analyzed using SPSS - 20 software and descriptive s (mean, standard deviation and frequency) and inferential statistics, including independent T-test and one-way ANOVA.

Results:  According to the results in all studied hospitals, the nurses' compassion fatigue was lower than average (2.17±0.43). In addition, there was no correlation between any demographic variables with compassion fatigue in the nurses of emergency departments (the significance level of the test error for the confidence level was 0.95).

Conclusions:  Although the levels of compassion fatigue were lower than average, both may negatively affect nurses’ care and patient outcomes. Informing nurses about compassion fatigue and its consequences and providing periodic counseling can contribute to its identification and control.