Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout and its Associated Factors among Nurses Working in Critical Care Area of Tertiary Care Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue is the element of professional quality of life which plays an integral role in compassionate care. Compassion fatigue can lead to poor job performance, high turnover rate, absenteeism, lack of interest in patients, and poor patient outcome. Objective: This study aimed to determine the burden of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and burnout among nurses working in specialty-based critical care areas. Methods: A cross-sectional study was accomplished at Dow University Hospital from December 2020 to March 2021. A structured, and validated tool, ProQol was utilized for data collection. Data were entered and analyzed in SPSS version 24.0. Binary logistic regression was applied to establish the association between the variables. The level of significance was considered with a p-value ≤0.05. Results: A total of 140 nurses working in critical areas were approached and responded to this survey. The average score was 40.77 ± 6.26 for compassion satisfaction, 22.47 ± 5.46 for burnout, and 26.14 ±6.20 for secondary traumatic stress. On multivariable regression analysis, the likelihood of average compassion satisfaction was significantly lower among nurses who had BSN degrees. Nurses with work experience of 6 months to <1 year, 1-3 years, and 4-6 years had higher average compassion satisfaction. None of the participants’ characteristics was associated with a burnout on univariate analysis. The risk of secondary traumatic stress was found higher in nurses who were single. Conclusion: The study findings indicated an average to a higher level of compassion satisfaction and a low to average level of compassion fatigue which is burnout and secondary traumatic stress among critical care nurses.