GREEK MILITARY NURSING OFFICERS’ COMPASSION COMPETENCE AND COMPASSION LEVEL AT WORK AND THEIR PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE

Abstract

Aim: Of this study was to investigate the level of Military Nursing Officers’(MNOS) compassion competence and their personal level of compassion at work and their correlation with the professional quality of life. Materials and methods This is a cross-sectional study carried out from December 2019 to May 2020 using the method of convenience sampling. The study involved 235 MNOs serving in Greek Military Hospitals. A single questionnaire containing Compassion at Work index, Compassion competence scale and ProQOL 5 was used for data collection. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed with a response rate of 58.75%. Data analysis was performed using the statistical package SPSS 22.0. Results: The research showed that there was a significant positive correlation of the Compassion Satisfaction score with the compassion at work and compassion competence scales. So, the more compassion participants had, the more satisfaction they received from the care they put into their work. Conversely, the more compassion participants had, the less burnout they felt. Regarding secondary traumatic stress, it was found that the higher the participants’ score on the dimensions of compassion in the dimension “Being non-judgmental”, “Being tolerant to personal distress” and “Being empathic”, the lower the secondary traumatic stress they felt. The position at hospital, the score on the compassion dimension in the dimension “Experiencing the suffering of others” were found to be independently related to the Compassion Satisfaction score. Specifically, Head Nurses had a 3.86 points lower score compared to Nurse managers. Higher values in the “Experiencing the suffering of others” dimension were related to a higher Compassion Satisfaction score. Nursing Officers who scored higher in compassion dimensions such as “Being nonjudgmental”, “Being tolerant to personal distress” and “Being empathic”, they felt lower secondary traumatic stress. Conclusions: It is really important for Military nursing Officers to be compassionate in order to get more satisfaction from caring about their work and feel less burnout.