Specialist nurses’ Compassion Fatigue and related factors in the aftermath of COVID-19 : A correlation survey

Abstract: Background: Intensive Care and Anaesthetists Nurses are, through their profession and the COVID-19 pandemic, predisposed to suffering from Compassion Fatigue (CF). CF develops as stressors exceed the ability to cope with the demands of caring and has been associated with organisational factors. When nurses develop CF, healthcare organisations and patients suffer. The individual nurse becomes negatively affected and may develop a turnover intention, which is particularly worrying due to the current shortage of specialist nurses. Motive: In Sweden, there is a lack of knowledge about Intensive Care and Anaesthesia Nurses’ CF with focus on organisational factors and turnover intention.  Aim: to measure Intensive Care and Anaesthesia nurses’ Compassion Fatigue and explore its correlation with organisational support and turnover intention in the context of Swedish healthcare in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This is a cross-sectional correlation study. 79 specialist nurses answered a web-based survey which included, among other instruments, the Professional Quality of Life Scale. Spearman's rank, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U were used in the statistical analysis in jamovi. Result: Specialist nurses had moderate Compassion Satisfaction (CS) while CF, measured as Burnout (BO) and Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), was low. CS was negatively correlated with BO. Intensive Care Nurses and female nurses had higher STS. Current job turnover intention was associated with CS, BO and Perceived Organizational Support (POS). Nursing profession turnover intention was associated with CS and CF. In addition to current-job turnover, POS was correlated to CS and BO.   Conclusion: The Professional Quality of Life is a useful tool to monitor the trends in specialist nurses’ wellbeing. POS has the potential to improve several issues simultaneously, increasing CS and reducing BO and turnover intention. Future research should therefore focus on POS as well as explore CS potential to minimise BO.