The effect of thanatophobia and professional commitment on compassion fatigue in nurses in Türkiye: Cross sectional study

Abstract

The study was executed as cross-sectional to unearth the effect of thanatophobia and professional commitment on compassion fatigue in nurses in Türkiye. This study is cross-sectional. 521 nurses were reached by using the regional stratified method. Data were collected online via Google forms between July and November 2021.Data were obtained with the Sociodemographic and Occupational Characteristics Questionnaire, the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale, the Thanatophobia Scale and the Scale of Commitment to the Nursing Profession. Data were evaluated using the number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, One way ANOVA, and using correlation and regression analysis. The mean age of the nurses was 32.22±7.51. Nurses acquired a moderate score on the Compassion Fatigue (64.63±30.89), Thanatophobia (30.69±12.26), and Professional Commitment (67.66±14.33) scales. Thanatophobia predicted Compassion Fatigue at a rate of 41.2% in terms of providing care to a terminally ill patient and thinking about quitting the profession in the near future. Nurses acquired a moderate score on the Compassion Fatigue, Thanatophobia and Professional Commitment scales. It is recommended to evaluate Compassion Fatigue, Thanatophobia, and Professional Commitment in nurses regularly, to provide training for nurses who cared for patients who have fear of death or who have died, to rotate nurses working in this field, and to strengthen the collaboration among employees to increase their commitment to the profession.