Correlates of Professional Quality of Life in Nurses

Abstract

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 <.01 and r =.256, n=160, p <.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<.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.