Canadian Nurses Research Articles

Knowledge and Attitudes of Pharmacogenetics Among Canadian Nurses: Implications for Nursing Education

Pharmacogenetic testing is used to tailor medication recommendations based on an individual's genetic makeup. Increased precision in prescribing medication through the use of genetics leads to a reduction in adverse drug reactions resulting in decreased morbidity and mortality. Due to the noted benefits to patient health outcomes and reduction in healthcare costs, a growing number of Canadian health centers and community pharmacies are beginning to offer pharmacogenetic testing. Previous studies indicate that Canadian nurses have minimal education in genomics; however, there has been an increase in attention to nursing roles in the implementation of genomic health practices in recent years. As the use of pharmacogenetics increases, nurses will be expected to be knowledgeable about pharmacogenetic testing and will play a key role in patient education. Results of previous studies show a low level of knowledge about pharmacogenetic testing among physicians and pharmacists; however, this area of knowledge has not been systematically assessed for nurses. To address this gap, a cross-sectional study was conducted to assess knowledge and attitudes about pharmacogenetics of nurses across Canada. An anonymous online survey was completed by 236 participants, including nursing students (n = 84), registered nurses (n = 144), and nurse practitioners/nurse clinicians (n = 9). Participants represented 9/10 provinces and 2/3 territories across Canada. The majority of the participants (65.9%) lacked formal education in genetics and indicated a fair or poor level of understanding of pharmacogenetic testing in the clinical setting (93%). The mean score for pharmacogenetic knowledge questions was 34.5%, while the mean score for genetics knowledge questions was 61.1%. Despite their self-reported lack of knowledge and understanding, most participants had positive attitudes towards pharmacogenetic testing and recognized its ability to decrease adverse drug reactions and improve clinical efficacy (81.3%). Most participants (73.7%) were interested in educational offerings related to pharmacogenetic testing, particularly web-based courses and seminars/lectures. The results of this study indicate that nurses across Canada may not have the necessary knowledge to support the implementation of pharmacogenetic testing into clinical practice. However, positive attitudes and interest in learning about pharmacogenetics indicate opportunities for the development of educational activities to ensure that Canadian nurses are prepared for upcoming changes that will impact nursing practice.

Changes in Cognitive Control Following a Novel Resilience-Focused Nursing Educational Program: An Exploratory Study

Patient care is currently challenged by various factors including stress and nurse fatigue that can negatively impact nurses’ health and patient safety. Emotional exhaustion and burnout among nurses are at an all-time high. Canadian nurses are reporting clinical rates of depression, anxiety, and panic at disproportionately higher rates than other public safety personnel. Innovative educational programs are desperately needed to mitigate stress and relieve distress, which will ultimately promote a healthier and more productive workforce. Little is known about the effectiveness of research informed cognitive control education within a community of practice (COP) to help nurses and nursing students process difficult experiences in order to thrive in stressful work environments. The purpose of this exploratory mixed methods study is to determine if a novel nursing educational program that was embedded in a COP framework leads to changes in cognitive control in a combined group of 16 nurses and nursing students. It included the delivery of 20 hours of community interaction over a 5-week period. Changes in cognitive control were evaluated through electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements before and after completing the course. Participants’ perceived values and priorities for improvement were captured through a focus group. Data demonstrated an increase in cognitive control before and after the COP intervention. The focus group identified nine themes that centered on promoting connection, self-efficacy, non-attachment, accountability, and trauma-informed support, and culture change. Addressing emotional pain through structured relational practice and resilience development provides a larger context for understanding workplace stress, overload, and degraded function. Connecting these disparate stressors clarifies the supporting relationships between cognitive control, personal value, social identity, and spiritual purpose. Resilience development education within a COP improved cognitive control, promoted an alignment with personal values, buffered participants from workplace stress, and empowered them to carry their learnings as change agents in healthcare. The study was limited by a small sample size and a relatively homogenous population. Further research is needed to examine the impact of evidence-informed and resilience-focused COP on patient care, safety, and costs. Résumé Les soins aux patients sont touchés par divers facteurs, dont le stress et la fatigue des infirmières, qui pourraient avoir un impact négatif sur la santé des infirmières et la sécurité des patients. La prévalence de l’épuisement émotionnel et professionnel chez les infirmières n’a jamais été aussi élevée. Les infirmières canadiennes présentent des taux cliniques de dépression, de troubles d’anxiété et de panique disproportionnellement plus élevés que les

Assessing the contribution of immigrants to Canada’s nursing and health care support occupations: a multi-scalar analysis

BackgroundThe World Health Organization adopted the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health Workforce 2030 in May 2016. It sets specific milestones for improving health workforce planning in member countries, such as developing a health workforce registry by 2020 and ensuring workforce self-sufficiency by halving dependency on foreign-trained health professionals. Canada falls short in achieving these milestones due to the absence of such a registry and a poor understanding of immigrants in the health workforce, particularly nursing and healthcare support occupations. This paper provides a multiscale (Canada, Ontario, and Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks) overview of immigrant participation in nursing and health care support occupations, discusses associated enumeration challenges, and the implications for health workforce planning focusing on immigrants.MethodsDescriptive data analysis was performed on Canadian Institute for Health Information dataset for 2010 to 2020, and 2016 Canadian Census and other relevant data sources.ResultsThe distribution of nurses in Canada, Ontario, and Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks reveal a growth in Nurse Practitioners and Registered/Licensed Practical Nurses, and contraction in the share of Registered Nurses. Immigrant entry into the profession was primarily through the practical nurse cadre. Mid-sized communities registered the highest growth in the share of internationally educated nurses. Data also pointed towards the underutilization of immigrants in regulated nursing and health occupations.ConclusionImmigrants comprise an important share of Canada’s nursing and health care support workforce. Immigrant pathways for entering nursing occupations are complex and difficult to accurately enumerate. This paper recommends the creation of an integrated health workforce dataset, including information about immigrant health workers, for both effective national workforce planning and for assessing Canada’s role in global health workforce distribution and utilization.

Supporting Canadian Nursing Students to Write the NCLEX-RN Exam: A Three-Phased Mixed Methods Descriptive Design.

In 2015, the College of Nurses of Ontario, replaced the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination with the NCLEX-RN exam as entry-to-practice. Faculty in a college-university partnership searched for products to provide nursing students with focused practice in writing exams modelled on the Canadian NCLEX-RN test plan. The aim of this three-phased evaluation study was to test and validate NCLEX-RN exam preparation materials newly developed for the Canadian context. A mixed methods descriptive design was used to capture subjective perspectives and objective measures. After ethical approval was obtained, 13 students assessed the e-learning platform's usability. Eight faculty/clinical experts assessed the content validity of materials using a content validity index (CVI) at both item (I-CVI), and scale (S-CVI) levels. Lastly, 72 completed tests served as the basis for assessing psychometric properties of selected test items. Materials were assessed as useful and easy to use and navigate. I-CVIs ranged between 0.5 to 1.0 with none falling below 0.5 while S-CVIs were above the standard for acceptability of greater than 0.8 with none falling below 0.9. Overall test reliability measured by the Kuder-Richardson formula was 0.73. Many items assessed for difficulty (64%) showed a proportion of correct responses within desired ranges, and most point-biserial indices ranged from fair to very good. Strong evidence supported the usability and content validity of the materials assessed. Item difficulty and discrimination analyses were within acceptable ranges. Suggestions for improvements were offered. Predictive analysis should form the basis of future research in this area.

Degarelix administration technique optimisation: Consensus findings of an international Delphi nurse panel

AbstractWhat steps involved in degarelix (Firmagon®, Ferring Pharmaceuticals) administration and patient care do specialist nurses consider most important to reduce the risk of associated injection site reactions, and are there any variations in administration and materials used to support optimal injection technique? Degarelix is a GnRH antagonist indicated for the first‐line treatment of advanced prostate cancer that effectively suppresses testosterone production in the testes without an initial testosterone surge and possible subsequent disease flare—both typical features associated with GnRH agonists. However, injection site reactions can occur after subcutaneous injection of degarelix, which are unpleasant for patients and may represent a limiting factor for its use by healthcare professionals. The objective of this study was to reach consensus on key steps involved in degarelix administration and patient care to minimise injection site reaction risk. Injection site reactions have been associated with subcutaneous injection of degarelix in several published studies; they are usually transient, mild‐to‐moderate, and occur mainly with the initial dose. Information on prevention is limited, one research group suggesting that the injection method may contribute to injection site reaction risk, and another describing specific injection techniques and strategies developed by Canadian nurses and physicians aiming to prevent degarelix injection site reactions. An online pre‐meeting survey regarding degarelix administration and injection site reactions was conducted to gather insights from 11 international specialist nurses. Survey results supported the development of 25 best practice consensus statements for the in‐person Delphi meeting (Warsaw, Poland), attended by 15 international specialist nurses. Statements focused on degarelix reconstitution, administration and patient care. Participants voted anonymously and collated responses were discussed after each voting round to understand if consensus could be achieved. If no consensus was reached after the first voting round, up to two more voting rounds were considered. Consensus was defined as “agreement” or “disagreement” by ≥75% of nurses, with ≤15% having the opposite opinion. In the pre‐meeting survey, nurses reported that they observed injection site reactions in up to a third of treated patients after degarelix injection, and all agreed that the administration technique was, to some degree, related to the development of injection site reactions; a variety of materials were being used as guidance. In the Delphi study, consensus was reached on 5 of 9 statements related to reconstitution steps and 14 of 16 statements related to administration steps and patient care, all of which were considered to be important in the prevention of injection site reactions. This study confirmed country‐specific variations in the degarelix administration technique and highlighted pivotal steps that may potentially contribute to injection site reactions. Importantly, all nurses agreed that technique optimisation holds the potential to reduce the occurrence of such reactions (“yes,” 45%; “possibly,” 55%; “no,” 0%). The findings should be considered along with other available materials and guidance to help reduce the risk of injection site reactions in patients with advanced prostate cancer treated with degarelix.

Role Expectations for Nurses and Neuroscientific and Neurotechnological Advancements: A Qualitative Study on the Perceptions of Nurses on Their Roles and Lifelong Learning

Nurses can understand and evaluate the impact of neuroscientific and neurotechnological advancements (NNA) from multiple standpoints given their roles as patient liaisons, advocates for their profession and their clients, leaders, and educators as well as their interactions with NNA such including deep brain stimulation and neuroimaging. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Canadian nurses to understand their perspectives on their roles in and outside the workplace, their familiarity with NNA and their ethical, legal, and social implications, their participation in NNA governance discussions and how lifelong learning can be applied to empower their participations in NNA governance discussions. Participants felt that nurses had the potential to meaningfully involve themselves in NNA governance discussions if given a greater opportunity. Participants were not offered lifelong learning surrounding the ethical, legal, and social implications of NNA. It would be fruitful to facilitate and empower nurses as contributors to NNA governance and ethics discussions.

Uncovering Important Drivers of the Increase in the Use of Virtual Care Technologies in Nursing Care: Quantitative Analysis From the 2020 National Survey of Canadian Nurses.

BackgroundCanadian nurses are at the forefront of patient care delivery. Although the use of digital health technologies for care delivery is gaining momentum in Canada, nurses are encouraged to integrate virtual care into their practice. In early 2020, more Canadian nurses delivered care virtually compared with 3 years ago.ObjectiveThis study seeks to uncover the professional characteristics of Canadian nurses accessing virtual care in 2020, understand how these characteristics differ across types of technologies, investigate whether the nurses accessing virtual care possess the skills and knowledge needed to use these technologies, and determine the important drivers of the uptake of virtual care observed in 2020.MethodsWe used data from the 2017 and 2020 National Survey of Canadian Nurses. This survey collected data on the use of digital health technologies in nursing practice. It concerned regulated nursing professionals working in different health care settings and from different domains of nursing practice. We combined the chi-square independence test and logistic regression analysis to uncover the most relevant drivers of virtual care uptake by nurses in 2020.ResultsIn early 2020, before the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses who delivered care virtually were predominantly nurse practitioners (135/159, 84.9%) and more likely to work in a primary or community care setting (202/367, 55%) and in an urban setting (194/313, 61.9%). Factors such as nursing designation (P<.001), perceived quality of care at the health facility where the nurses practiced (P<.001), and the type of patient record–keeping system they had access to (P=.04) had a statistically significant effect on the probability of nurses to deliver care virtually in early 2020. Furthermore, nurses’ perception of the quality of care they delivered through virtual technologies was statistically associated with their perception of the skills (χ24=308.7; P<.001) and knowledge (χ24=283.4; P<.001) to use these technologies.ConclusionsThis study emphasizes the critical importance of nursing designation, geographic location, and type of patient record–keeping system in predicting virtual care integration in nursing practice. The findings related to geographic location can be used by decision-makers for better allocation of digital health resources among care settings in rural and urban areas. Similarly, the disparities observed across nursing designations have some implications for the digital training of nurses at all levels of practice. Finally, the association between electronic medical record use and uptake of virtual care could accelerate the implementation of more modernized record-keeping systems in care settings. Hence, this could advance interoperability and improve health care delivery.

Welcome, Dr. Martin-Misener.

Longwoods Publishing and the Canadian Nurses Association are pleased to welcome your new editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership!

The Association between Mental Health Symptoms and Quality and Safety of Patient Care before and during COVID-19 among Canadian Nurses.

(1) Background: While the association between nurse mental health and quality and safety of patient care delivery was well documented pre-pandemic, fewer research studies have examined this relationship in the context of COVID-19. This study examines the impact of various mental health symptoms experienced by nurses on quality and safety before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Methods: A secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data from 4729 and 3585 nurses in one Canadian province between December 2019 and June-July 2020 was conducted. Data were analyzed using between group difference tests and logistic regression; (3) Results: Compared to pre-COVID-19, during COVID-19 nurses reported a higher safety grade, a greater likelihood of recommending their units for care and lower quality of nursing care. Most mental health symptoms were higher during COVID-19 and higher levels of mental health symptoms were correlated with lower ratings of quality and safety both pre- and during COVID-19; (4) Conclusion: Mental health symptoms have implications for nurses’ quality and safety of patient care delivery, with the association between mental health symptoms and quality and safety following a dose–response relationship before and during COVID-19. These findings suggest that it is worthwhile for nurse mental health symptoms to be included as hospital level performance metrics.

"It Is Difficult to Always Be an Antagonist": Ethical, Professional, and Moral Dilemmas as Potentially Psychologically Traumatic Events among Nurses in Canada.

Aims: We explore social and relational dynamics tied to an unexplored potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE) that can impact nurses’ well-being and sense of their occupational responsibilities: namely, the moral, ethical, or professional dilemmas encountered in their occupational work. Design: We used a semi-constructed grounded theory approach to reveal prevalent emergent themes from the qualitative, open-ended component of our survey response data as part of a larger mixed-methods study. Methods: We administered a national Canadian survey on nurses’ experiences of occupational stressors and their health and well-being between May and September 2019. In the current study, we analyzed data from four open text fields in the PPTE section of the survey. Results: In total, at least 109 participants noted that their most impactful PPTE exposure was a moral, professional, and/or ethical dilemma. These participants volunteered the theme as a spontaneous addition to the list of possible PPTE exposures. Conclusions: Emergent theme analytic results suggest that physicians, other nurses, staff, and/or the decision-making power of patients’ families can reduce or eliminate a nurse’s perception of their agency, which directly and negatively impacts their well-being and may cause them to experience moral injury. Nurses also report struggling when left to operationalize patient care instructions with which they disagree. Impact: Nurses are exposed to PPTEs at work, but little is known about factors that can aggravate PPTE exposure in the field, impact the mental wellness of nurses, and even shape patient care. We discuss the implications of PPTE involving moral, professional, and ethical dilemmas (i.e., potentially morally injurious events), and provide recommendations for nursing policy and practice.

Investing in Canada’s nursing workforce post-pandemic: A call to action

Nurses represent the highest proportion of healthcare workers globally and have played a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has shed light on multiple vulnerabilities that have impacted the nursing workforce including critical levels of staffing shortages in Canada. A review sponsored by the Royal Society of Canada investigated the impact of the pandemic on the nursing workforce in Canada to inform planning and implementation of sustainable nursing workforce strategies. The review methods included a trend analysis of peer-reviewed articles, a jurisdictional scan of policies and strategies, analyses of published surveys and interviews of nurses in Canada, and a targeted case study from Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. Findings from the review have identified longstanding and COVID-specific impacts, gaps, and opportunities to strengthen the nursing workforce. These findings were integrated with expert perspectives from national nursing leaders involved in guiding the review to arrive at recommendations and actions that are presented in this policy brief. The findings and recommendations from this policy brief are meant to inform a national and sustained focus on retention and recruitment efforts in Canada.

Nursing Students’ Well-Being: A Comparison of Two Canadian Nursing Programs in Different Linguistic Contexts

Nursing programs are highly competitive and stressful environments; nursing educators are looking for ways to mitigate the negative consequences of demanding training programs. This article explores and compares the mental health status and sociodemographic and personal characteristics that influence the psychological distress of nursing and non-nursing students learning in either official language of Canada. An online and paper survey was administered during class time to 990 students, 186 of whom were in an undergraduate nursing program in one of two postsecondary institutions in Manitoba, Canada. Findings demonstrate that students in nursing programs are more likely to report poor mental health than students in other undergraduate programs and that nursing students in the French-language institution report poorer mental health outcomes as compared to nursing students in the English-language institution. Life satisfaction and high self-esteem are positively associated with well-being, whereas age, gender, and learning in a second language are risk factors contributing to anxiety.

Commentary – Advancing Nursing in Canada: Toward the Elimination of Anti-Black Racism

This commentary challenges historic and contemporary issues within nursing and provides direction toward a more inclusive future for nursing. This is a call-to-action for nurses, nursing students and nurse allies to advance effort toward the elimination of anti-Black racism in nursing in Canada. To achieve this, it is imperative to move beyond the performative and adopt practices that enable critical reflection and action. Addressing the manner in which exclusion is reinforced and perpetuated requires interrogation of four distinct yet interconnected processes of racial exclusion and discrimination. Notwithstanding, the future of nursing requires a critical examination of the role of nursing in and relationship with oppressive institutions, including prisons. Abolition, regarded as a radical stance, argues that beyond disproportional incarceration rates, prisons exist within a system of punishment that inflicts long-lasting irreparable mental and physical trauma upon individuals, families and communities. The effects of incarceration on mental, physical and spiritual health is a healthcare crisis that is in direct opposition to the core tenets of nursing and health.

Shifting Sands: A View from the Centre in 2021.

After decades of growth and relative stability in professional nursing across the country, events of the past decade have generated unease across the profession as the very existence of some of our institutions is threatened. In this commentary, we describe factors leading to the erosion of historic membership models that were the backbone of professional nursing representation in Canada. We argue that clinging to old models of jurisdictional representation will not be fiscally sustainable in an all-voluntary membership model and suggest principles we believe could underpin a strong, united and pan-Canadian professional association representing all nurses in Canada.

Commentary: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: A Key Solution to the Crisis of Doctoral Nursing Education in Canada.

Canada desperately needs more doctoral graduates. We also need more diverse graduates to move into education and leadership roles across the country. This article examines the origins and development of doctoral education for nurses in Canada and the continuing dire shortfall of doctorally prepared nurses to meet the expanding needs of the profession. In the context of this desperate shortage, this article then moves to examine the critical issues of equity, diversity and inclusion and the failure of the nursing academy and the profession to address these long-standing matters. These two issues - the shortfall of doctoral graduates and the lack of diversity in education and leadership in nursing - need to be addressed through a combined and focused strategy if we are to ensure the future sustainability of the profession. Given the decade-long lead time required to effect significant changes in doctoral graduations, the article concludes with a call for a national strategy engaging multiple stakeholders to increase awareness of the issues and their implications for the sustainability of the profession. It concludes that only through the united efforts of the profession will Canadian nursing be able to ensure that nursing education will produce a sufficient number of graduates for the needs of education, practice and policy across the country and that these graduates will better reflect the diversity of the nursing profession and the Canadian population, overall.

Thank you, Dr. Nagle.

For more than 10 years, Dr. Lynn Nagle has demonstrated true nursing leadership as the editor-in-chief of this journal. Her leadership has been evident through her many, many accomplishments, some of which include establishing the Canadian Nursing Informatics Association, induction as a fellow into both the American and Canadian Academies of Nursing, being named one of the top 10 Women Leaders in Digital Health in Canada, being recognized with the CNA's Centennial Nurse Award and designation with a Distinguished Alumni award, University of Rochester - just to name a few.

A Pilot of a Sustainability-Extending Intervention in Canadian Nursing Homes

Understanding of intervention sustainability processes is limited. Failure to sustain evidence-based innovations means that intended improvements are short-lived, scale-up and spread are unlikely, and real losses are incurred on research investments. We explored the sustainability of a health care aide (HCA)-led quality improvement (QI) initiative, Safer Care for Older Persons (in residential) Environments (SCOPE), that was implemented in long-term care homes (LTCHs) in Manitoba, Canada. Based on our understanding of factors influencing post-implementation sustainability processes, we developed and piloted a “low-dose” and “high-dose” “Booster” intervention to extend the two-year post-implementation period over which SCOPE was naturally sustained. Both versions of the “Booster” involved the following components: a HCA-led team with management support, a workshop to review SCOPE QI approaches and tools, a binder of QI resources, and supports from an experienced Quality Advisor (QA). We collected data from various sources to depict the most accurate account of QI sustainability and conducted thematic analysis to understand each team’s experience with sustainability processes. We used a qualitative assessment rubric to evaluate the impact of the “Booster” conditions on the teams’ performance against core SCOPE components. Our results suggest that the “Booster” served to establish more relaxed expectations and generally renew interest in LTCH QI initiatives. The calibre of management support was associated with teams’ performance and management support varied with the level of QA support. These pilot results will inform the next study phase, which examines longer-term sustainability of QI initiatives in LTCHs beyond the initial 2-year post-implementation period.

Experiences of faculty and staff nurses working with nursing students during clinical placement in residential aged care facilities: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.

The objective of this review was to synthesize evidence on the experiences of faculty and staff nurses working with nursing students in clinical placement in residential aged care facilities. Nursing education helps prepare students to provide quality care to older adults. Nursing programs across the globe are championing the integration of content on the care of older adults into their curricula as well as recognizing the value of clinical placements that focus exclusively on this population. Staff nurses who work in residential aged care facilities often work alongside students. In this role, they can support faculty and mentor students. This review explored faculty and staff experiences of nursing student placements in such facilities. This review considered qualitative studies that address the experiences of faculty and staff nurses working with nursing students in residential aged care facilities. Studies published in English from 1995 onward were included. The literature search was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, and ERIC. The search for unpublished articles included Proquest Dissertations and Theses and Google searches of the Canadian Nurses Association and American Nurses Association websites. Papers were screened by two reviewers independently against the inclusion criteria. Those meeting the criteria were appraised using the JBI critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research. Key findings from included studies were extracted using a standardized tool and classified as unequivocal, credible, or not supported. This review followed the principles of meta-aggregration in line with the JBI approach. Six studies, published between 2001 and 2017, were included in the review. A total of 32 findings were extracted and aggregated into nine categories. From the nine categories, four synthesized findings were developed: i) students enhance the environment, whereby faculty and staff perceive that student presence enhances the residential aged care work and living environment, ii) effort is required by faculty and staff to make the experience work, reflecting a need for faculty and staff to accept and work with negativities, iii) residential aged care facilities provide rich learning experiences, indicating an appreciation for available learning opportunities, and iv) importance of a residential aged care-academic partnership for a collaborative approach in creating positive experiences for faculty and staff working with students in this setting. Faculty and staff experiences highlight that residential aged care has the potential to provide students with valuable learning experiences, including how to provide comprehensive and quality nursing care to older adults. A lack of resources in residential aged care inspires faculty and staff to be creative in how they work with students. However, working with students can be challenging for faculty who lack interest and expertise in caring for older adults in this setting. Additionally, staff can become frustrated when they perceive that students do not value the learning opportunities that are available or do not appreciate the expertise required to work with older adults. Partnerships between residential aged care facilities and academic programs can ensure that faculty and staff have the support and resources required to optimize the clinical placements for students. PROSPERO CRD42020168698.

Resisting the soft skills discourse: Perspectives and experiences of internationally educated nurses in Canada

Resisting the soft skills discourse: Perspectives and experiences of internationally educated nurses in Canada

Work Environment Characteristics and Emotional Intelligence as Correlates of Nurses' Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

This cross-sectional survey study examined the relationship between Canadian nurses’ work environment characteristics, emotional intelligence, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction (n = 1271). Psychological demands, decision latitude, supervisor and coworker support, and emotional intelligence (EI) were significantly correlated with nurses’ compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue, except for two EI subscales. Furthermore, these relationships were stronger for compassion satisfaction than compassion fatigue, suggesting that they are influenced by different factors. Our results highlight the importance of creating reasonable psychological demands, empowering nurses to make decisions in their jobs, supportive relationships at work, and fostering the development of nurses’ EI.