Caring International Research Collaborative: A Five-Country Partnership to Measure Perception of Nursing Staffs’ Compassion Fatigue, Burnout, and Caring for Self

Abstract

Partnering in research across disciplines and across countries can be challenging due to differing contexts of practice and culture. This study sought to demonstrate how central constructs that have application across disciplines and countries can be studied while concurrently considering context. Groups of nurses from Botswana, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, and Spain partnered to identify how to measure the constructs of caring for self, burnout, and compassion fatigue, replicating a study by Johnson (2012), who found that caring for self had a moderately strong negative relationship with both compassion fatigue and burnout. While these constructs were of interest to all five groups, the conversation of contextual influences varied. All five groups used the same instruments to measure the central constructs. Levels of burnout and compassion fatigue varied by country but were moderated by caring for self. Partnering across countries made it possible to understand that caring for self moderates the negative impact of burnout and compassion fatigue in all five countries. This study gives insight into methods for partnering across disciplines and contexts.

Compassion Fatigue among Staff in a Medium Secure Psychiatric Setting: Individual and Environmental Factors

“…The results of the current analysis suggest that resilience explains a significant part of the relationship with burnout. Findings support the notion that the effect of workplace violence may be influenced by resilience [69]. Previous findings of a positive correlation between resilience and compassion satisfaction were supported, which in accordance with the notion that compassion satisfaction may be considered as one of the multiple pathways of resilience [70].…”

Compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and burnout: A study of nurses in a large Texas health‐care system

“…This is not to say that these issues are not an international problem. Many studies have pointed to the global scope of the problem (Itzhaki et al, 2015; Zhang, Han, et al, 2018; Zhang, Zhang, et al, 2018). Further study could be done to explore the impact of different models of health‐care, private vs. public for example, which is outside the scope of this study.…”

Secondary Traumatic Stress in Foster Carers: Risk Factors and Implications for Intervention

“…Canfield (2005) asserted that self-care could prevent exposure to STS from developing into a chronic disorder. In support, Itzhaki et al (2015) found that self-care moderated burnout and CF in nurses in a five-country study. This could be interpreted relative to Kotaro et al (2015) and Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theories that burnout depletes resources; self-care may build up (coping) resources which reduce the likelihood of exposure to traumatic material resulting in STS.…”