Compassion Fatigue and Risk Factors in Nurses in The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Nurses may experience compassion fatigue due to the nature of the nursing profession, the pandemic period can increase this risk, and this can affect the nurse, the patient, and the health care system negatively. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the compassion fatigue experienced by nurses during the pandemic process. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 280 nurses working in a hospital in Eskişehir. A structured questionnaire and the Compassion Fatigue -Short Scale were used as measurement tools. Results: The mean compassion fatigue score of the nurses was found as 68.36 (± 25.81). The compassion fatigue score of the nurses who were female, were graduates of health vocational high school, had 6-10 year of work experience, wanted to quit the job, worked for more than 48 hours a week during the pandemic, were anxious about being infected with the COVID-19 virus and spreading it to their family, and had family members diagnosed with COVID-19 was found to be significantly high. In addition, nurse's gender, weekly working hours, thoughts about the profession, feelings and experiences about the COVID-19 virus were determined to be risk factors for compassion fatigue. Conclusion: Considering the effect of compassion fatigue on nurses and the field of care, we recommend that nurses should be supported in this regard and that qualitative studies and prospective cohort studies with larger samples should ne planned.