Clinical nurses’ compassion fatigue psychological experience process: a constructivist grounded theory study

AimTo investigate the level of compassion fatigue among frontline nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the relationship between occupational stressors and compassion fatigue among frontline nurses based on structural equation modelling.BackgroundThree years into the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses on the frontlines of the battle were overwhelmed by affective and emotional inputs while caring for patients, and they generally experienced varying degrees of psychological problems. High levels of compassion fatigue can affect nursing quality and patient safety and therefore should be taken seriously by nursing managers.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 1432 frontline nurses in Sichuan Province, China, was conducted from January to March 2023 via convenience sampling methods. The General Information Questionnaire, the Nurses’ Occupational Stressors Scale, the Ego-Resilience Scale, the Chinese version of the Compassion Fatigue Brief Scale, and the Perceived Organizational Support Scale were used to collect the data. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation models and bootstrapping methods.ResultsNurse occupational stressors had a significant direct effect on compassion fatigue (B = 2.429, p < 0.001). Perceived organizational support exerted a mediating effect of 11.36% between occupational stressors and compassion fatigue. In addition, ego-resilience had a moderating role in the relationship between nurses’ occupational stressors and compassion fatigue, between nurses’ occupational stressors and perceived organizational support, and between perceived organizational support and compassion fatigue. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the most influential dimension of occupational stressors on compassion fatigue was work-family conflict (β = 0.253, p < 0.001), followed by organizational issues (β = 0.153, p < 0.001), work demands (β = 0.103, p < 0.001) and difficulty taking leave (β = 0.102, p < 0.001).ConclusionNurse occupational stressors are positively associated with compassion fatigue and influence nurse compassion fatigue through the mediating effect of perceived organizational support and the moderating mechanism of ego-resilience. Managers can reduce nurses’ compassion fatigue levels by reducing occupational stressors, promoting nurses’ perceived organizational support, and fostering ego-resilience.Implications for nursing managementThis study further integrated the external and internal factors affecting compassion fatigue and constructed a structural equation model of the mechanism of compassion fatigue in frontline nurses, which has implications for the early identification and intervention of compassion fatigue in nurses.

Compassion Fatigue in Pediatric Nurses

Compassion fatigue can lead to behaviors such as loss of caring and compassion, thereby reducing the quality of care and ultimately failing to achieve the goal of improving patient health and unstable patient satisfaction. The purpose of this review was to identify and summarize published reviews on compassion fatigue in nurses and its impact on patient care. Three databases were searched, namely PubMed, Wiley Online Library, Proquest for studies on compassion fatigue in nurses, published in English from 2021 to 2024. The review used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) extension to include articles. Of the 179 search results, 15 met the inclusion criteria. Several factors were identified in this review including burnout, number of dependent children, lack of task completion, nurse competence, nurse shift schedules, male nurse coping, low nurse income, low compassion satisfaction. This scoping review provides important insights into common causes and potential risks of compassion fatigue among nurses and identifies potential strategies to support nurses’ psychological health and well-being.

The current semi-experimental pilot study was conducted to investigate the effects of dance and movement therapy methods (DMTM) on compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue in nurses using a pre-/posttest design. Nurses (N = 8) with low compassion satisfaction, high burnout, and high compassion fatigue participated in eight sessions of DMTM. Upon completion of the program, average compassion satisfaction levels increased, and burnout and compassion fatigue levels decreased. Although further testing with larger samples is necessary, preliminary results indicate DMTM is effective for addressing compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue in nurses. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 58(4), 43-51.].

Aim: To investigate the relationship between mindful self-care and compassion fatigue and the chain mediating effects of resilience and professional identity. Background: Compassion is a critical quality for nurses, but they often face the risk of compassion fatigue. Methods: From October 2023 to May 2024, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in six tertiary hospitals in Guangdong, Henan, and Jiangsu provinces by convenience sampling. A total of 1315 clinical nurses in the hospital were surveyed using the Social-demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, the Chinese Version of the Brief Mindful Self-Care Scale, the Chinese Version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the Professional Identity Scale for Nurses, and the Chinese Version of the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale. The mediation model was analyzed using a bias-corrected bootstrapping method with PROCESS 4.1 implemented in SPSS 26.0. Results: Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between nurses' mindful self-care, resilience, and professional identity. Mindful self-care, resilience, and professional identity were negatively correlated with compassion fatigue. Resilience played a partial mediating role between mindful self-care and compassion fatigue. Professional identity also played a partial mediating role between mindful self-care and compassion fatigue; mindful self-care affected compassion fatigue through resilience and professional identity. Conclusion: Nurses' mindful self-care can affect compassion fatigue through the mediating role of resilience and professional identity. In the future, attention should be paid to cultivating nurses' mindful self-care ability and resilience and improving nurses' professional identity, which may help to reduce nurses' compassion fatigue. Implications: Hospital leaders should actively pay attention to the mental health of nurses and take measures to improve their ability of mindful self-care, which may help to prevent compassion fatigue and improve nursing quality. Reporting Method: The study adheres to the STROBE reporting guidelines. Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution.

To identify and synthesise intervention programs designed to address compassion fatigue among nurses, with a focus on their types and core characteristics. A scoping review. This review was conducted according to the scoping review guidelines proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and met the requirements of PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Literature published between January 2015 and March 2025 was thoroughly searched in Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library, APA PsycNet, Science Direct, and ProQuest. Major search terms included 'compassion fatigue', 'secondary traumatic stress', 'burnout', 'nurses' and 'intervention'. Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Interventions were categorised as: (1) Enhancement of Organisation and Social Support, (2) Development of Individual Psychological Capacities, (3) Systemic-level Interventions, these results align with the framework of the job demands resources theory. This review highlights diversity in the focus. While some emphasised on strengthening the job resources and building the personal individual-based resources, few others focused on system level interventions to address compassion fatigue in nurses. The findings also emphasise the importance and need for customised and accessible support strategies at both individual and organisational levels. Nurse well-being and resilience interventions promote balanced job settings and quality health care support. This review provides a foundation for designing comprehensive, empirically supported strategies to address compassion fatigue in nursing. Future research should focus on integrating individual and systemic support to build a healthy work environment. This review helps to understand the core characteristics and types of existing interventions addressing compassion fatigue among nurses, and highlights the need to focus on both individual as well as organisational needs and outcomes, thereby enhancing the well-being of nurses and creating healthy work environments. PRISMA-ScR was used in this scoping review. No patient or public contribution.

Nurses often face high-intensity emotional load and work pressure in clinical work. This working environment makes nurses prone to compassion fatigue (CF), and resilience plays an important role in alleviating CF. The purpose of this study is to identify the latent profile of nurses' CF and its population characteristics through latent profile analysis (LPA), and to explore the impact of resilience on the latent profile of CF. This study is a cross-sectional study. A total of 453 nurses from six hospitals in Sichuan Province, China were recruited from December 2024 to April 2025. The nurses were surveyed using a general information questionnaire, a resilience scale, and a compassion fatigue scale. The latent profile of nurses' CF was determined by LPA using Mplus 8.3 software. IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 software was used to explore the factors affecting the latent profile of nurses' CF through chi-square tests, one-way analysis of variance, and multivariate logistic regression analysis. There were three latent profiles of nurses' CF, namely Low CF (n = 203, 44.8%), Medium CF (n = 115, 34.2%) and High CF (n = 95, 21%), which indicated that most nurses were in low and medium CF. Resilience, the number of daily nursing patients, and the number of night shifts per week may be influencing factors of the potential profile of nurses' CF (P < 0.05). CF of nurses can be divided into three potential profiles, and each potential profile is affected by different factors. Nursing managers should regularly assess and identify nurses with moderate or high levels of CF, rationally formulate scheduling plans and assign work tasks, and take targeted intervention measures to enhance nurses' resilience, which will help improve their quality of professional life.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 poses a significant threat to nurses' lives and health, resulting in varying degrees of mental distress. Nurses may experience compassion fatigue, and their professional quality of life and satisfaction may suffer as a result. Their coping mechanisms may vary as well, influencing their compassionate and safe care. The study's objectives are to explore levels of compassion satisfaction and fatigue among nurses and identify their coping strategies. Further, to investigate the relationship between coping strategies, compassion satisfaction, and compassion fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a descriptive correlational design, this study was conducted with a convenience sample of 443 nurses working in an Egyptian university hospital. Nurses completed the coping strategy indicator scale and the professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue) scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis. Nurses' professional quality of life was average in terms of compassion satisfaction (2.95 ± 0.92) and compassion fatigue (2.38 ± 0.35). Nurses have a moderate use of coping strategies (2.13 ± 0.35). Problem-solving was rated as the highest coping strategy, while avoidance was rated as the lowest. Coping strategies showed a positive correlation with compassion satisfaction (r = 0.503, p < .001) and a negative correlation with compassion fatigue (r = -0.352, p < .001). In addition, coping strategies could predict 25.4% and 12.4% of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue, respectively (p < .001). Compassion satisfaction and fatigue are key determinants of nurses' quality of work life. Coping strategies, especially problem-solving and support systems, are vital to increase compassion satisfaction and mitigate burnout and secondary stress syndrome. Nurse managers should establish supportive work environments that promote nurses' well-being. Resilience-building programs and coping strategies' training are recommended to enhance the nurses' quality of work life and positive work attitudes.

Objective To explore the effects of lateral communication-based decompression group on reducing compassion fatigue in nurses of traumatology department. Methods A total of 61 clinical nurses were selected in this study from March to May 2017 using purposive sampling. The participants were randomly divided into two groups. The control group (n=28) received routine psychological care while the observation group (n=31) received lateral communication-based decompression intervention. The compassion fatigue was measured using Professional Quality of Life Scale. Results The observation group had significantly higher scores of compassion satisfaction compared with the control group [ (33.48±7.14) vs. (30.11±6.34) at one week after the intervention; (34.07±6.86) vs. (29.75±6.42) at three months after the intervention; t=3.306, 5.645; P<0.05]. Regarding secondary trauma, the observation group had significantly lower scores compared with the control group [ (22.61±5.85) vs. (25.88±6.06) at one week after the intervention; (22.17±5.76) vs. (25.74±6.33) at three months after the intervention; t=2.748, 3.320; P<0.01]. At three months after the intervention , the scores for work burnout were significantly lower in the observation group compared with the control group [ (19.37±5.27) vs. (22.95±6.82) ; t=3.053, P<0.01]. Conclusions The lateral communication-based decompression intervention can enhance nurses' compassion satisfaction level and reduce the secondary trauma and job burnout status. Key words: Nurses; Lateral communication; Compassion fatigue

To determine the effect of fear and coping with death on compassion fatigue in nurses working in the intensive care unit. Correlational-predictive design, applied in 245 nurses working in the intensive care unit through intentional sampling. The study applied a personal data card, the Collet-Lester Fear of Death Scale (α=0.72), the Bugen Fell of Death Scale (α=0.82), and the Empathy Exhaustion Scale (α=0.80). Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed, such as Spearman's test and a structural equation model. The work had 255 nurses who participated, finding a relationship among fear and coping toward death and compassion fatigue (p<0.01), together with the equation model showing that fear and coping toward death have a positive effect in 43.6% on compassion fatigue. Fear and coping with death have an effect on compassion fatigue in nurses working in the intensive care unit, so that when working in a critical area it can cause health effects.

To investigate compassion fatigue in nurses and the factors influencing the condition. This descriptive, comparative, and cross-sectional study was conducted in state and university hospitals in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. A purposive sampling method was used. Almost all of the nurses have experienced low to moderate levels of compassion fatigue. Factors affecting the severity include age, years of seniority, service, marital status, children, and type of hospital. Recommendations for reducing compassion fatigue are as follows: establishing clinical practice policies that reduce the development and possible consequences of compassion fatigue in addition to education and resilience training.

In the healthcare sector, nurses provide health care services to different clients which can resultin compassion fatigue. The resilience of nurses helps to provide control of compassion fatigue.The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a relationship between resilience andcompassion fatigue and also find a significant difference in resilience and compassion fatiguein terms of sex, age, and clinical experience. Correlational research design was utilized where249 registered nurses were conveniently sampled from Ghana. The study utilized a Resiliencequestionnaire Scale developed by Wagnild and Young (2010) and Professional quality of life(ProQOL) scale developed by Stamm (2010) was adapted and modified for compassion fatigue.The statistical treatments used were and Pearson Correlation, T-Test and ANOVA to addressthe research questions. The study showed that there was a high positive significant relationshipbetween resilience and compassion fatigue. There was a significant difference in age and sexon compassion fatigue however, no significant on clinical experience. Sex and clinicalexperience showed a significant difference in resilience but no significant difference when agewas considered. The results of the study suggest that registered nurses in Ghana experiencehigh compassion fatigue. In preventing the compassion fatigue of the nurse's measures shouldbe instituted to increase the resilience level of the nurses. Healthcare administrators should putin measures to reduce the compassion fatigue of the nurses. Further researchers should exploreother variables in relation to the resilience to help reduce the compassion fatigue of nurses

To look into the correlation between demographic variables, perceived social support and professional quality of lifeof nurses in public hospitals. A sample of 160 nurses of age (M=33.48, SD=9.18) was selected from public hospitals of Lahore. The nurses completed a demographic information form, MultidimensionalScale of Perceived Social Supportand Professional Quality of Life Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Two demographic variables, age and experience had significant positive correlation with compassion fatigue, r =.252, n=160, p &lt;.01 and r =.256, n=160, p &lt;.01 respectively. Other demographicvariables i.e. working hours and monthly income had no significant relationship with the subscales of Professional Quality of Life (compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout). Perceived Social Support had a significant correlation with compassion satisfaction, r=.222, n=160, p&lt;.01. It was concluded that the relationship between age, experience and compassion fatigue of nurses was significantly positive. The greater the age and experience of the nurses the more likely they are to have compassion fatigue. Perceived Social Support was related with compassion satisfaction which suggests that nurses’ perception of social support can increase their compassion satisfaction.

Last month was International Nurses Day. On the 12th of May, the birthday of British nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, nurses from the UK, and from as far as Canada, the USA and Hong Kong shared personal nursing care experiences as part of an initiative to combat compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a particular problem in the nursing profession because of the amount of emotional energy required to care for patients, in addition to the many physical and mental demands. The initiative featured a series of stories from nurses in an effort to promote the importance of sharing care experiences with fellow health professionals and reflecting on those experiences in order to top up emotional reserves and continue providing the highest quality compassionate nursing care possible. Contributions from three cardiac nurses are featured here. The first is a short editorial with a nurse's thoughts about compassion fatigue in nursing. The following two are nursing care experiences, and the rest of the series can be seen at http://www.ayshamendes.com

Purpose:Thisstudy wasdonetoidentifytheeffectsof TypeD personality oncompassionfatigue,burnout,compas- sion satisfaction, and job stress in clinical nurses. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 172 clinical nurses working in two tertiary hospitals. The structured questionnaires included Type D personality scale, compassion fatigue, burnout, compassion satisfaction, and job stressscales. Results:About 79.7%of participantswereclassifiedasTypeDpersonalitygroup. TheTypeD person- alitywas not related to general characteristicsof clinical nurses. The Type D personality groupshowed statistically significant higher compassion fatigue, burnout, and job stress and lower compassion satisfaction compared to the non-Type Dpersonalitygroup.Inaddition,compassion fatigueandburnout were positively correlatedwithjobstress and compassion fatigue was positively correlated with burnout. However, compassion satisfaction was negatively correlatedwith burnout. Conclusion:Asthe prevalence of Type Dpersonalityishighinclinicalnurses, it isnecessary to assess stress-related personality. In addition, management for the nurse with Type D personality is required to alleviate compassion fatigue, burnout, and job stress and to improve compassion satisfaction.