Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Heart and Vascular Nurses

Abstract

Objectives for this project were to determine the prevalence of compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout, and secondary traumatic stress (STS) in heart and vascular nurses to confirm whether differences exist between intensive care and intermediate care nurses. The Professional Quality of Life Scale Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue: Version 5 developed by Stamm (2009) was used. Results showed that nurses who work in the heart and vascular intermediate care unit had average to high scores of CS, low to average levels of burnout, and low to average levels of STS. Nurses who work in the heart and vascular intensive care unit had average to high levels of CS, low to average levels of burnout, and low to average levels of STS. These findings suggest that leadership should be aware of the prevalence of STS and burnout in heart and vascular nurses. Raising awareness of STS and burnout in intensive care and intermediate care nurses can help in targeting more specific strategies that may prevent the onset of developing these symptoms.

Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue Among Critical Care Nurses

“…Staff nurses with 6 to 10 years of experience had higher burnout and lower compassion satisfaction scores than did nurses with less experience; nurses with 11 to 20 years of experience had the highest degree of compassion fatigue. 25 Although the findings of these studies 23,25,28 differ, collectively they indicate that differences in age and experience can affect ProQOL, and therefore further study is warranted to fully examine this relationship. The relationship between highest educational degree and ProQOL scores also implies some differences.…”

“…Young et al 23 reported that the degree of burnout was higher on a heart and vascular ICU, which had a larger number of older nurses, than on the heart and vascular intermediate care unit, which had a larger number of younger nurses. These researchers 23 concluded that younger nurses might not have been in the profession long enough for signs of burnout to develop. Finally, Potter et al 25 examined the impact of experience on Pro-QOL.…”

“…The results suggest that challenges in caring for patients with varied acuity levels within the same unit differ from the challenges for nurses in a single-acuity unit. Young et al 23 noted that different acuity levels can affect Pro-QOL. In a comparison of heart and vascular ICU and intermediate care nurses, the ICU nurses scored higher on the burnout subscale.…”

“…medical-surgical, cardiovascular, pediatric, oncology, and hospice nurses, but rarely in critical care nurses. 18,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] The primary purpose of our study was to establish the prevalence of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue in adult, pediatric, and neonatal critical care nurses at a large Magnet-designated academic medical center in western New York State. A secondary purpose was to describe the demographic, unit, and organizational factors that may contribute to both compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue in these nurses.…”

Compassion fatigue among nurses working with older adults

“…3 These findings also suggest that the geriatric medicine nurses are able to connect with patients they care for regardless of the outlook and may lead to purposeful and meaningful interactions between the nurse and their patients. 10 Findings suggest the need to purposely build a supportive environment that prevents professional burnout and compassion fatigue and sustain compassion satisfaction. Department values as expressed through policies and procedures should support staff in balancing work and personal needs, as well as provide for adequate time off, assignment rotations, flexible Professional Quality of Life 7 scheduling, education benefits, and other self-care and development activities.…”