Relationships between nurses’ empathy, self-compassion and dimensions of professional quality of life: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Job stress and burnout are common among healthcare professionals, and nurses in particular. In addition to the heavy workload and lack of recourses, nurses are also confronted with emotionally intense situations associated with illness and suffering, which require empathic abilities. Although empathy is one of the core values in nursing, if not properly balanced it can also have detrimental consequences, such as compassion fatigue. Self-compassion, on the other hand, has been shown to be a protective factor for a wide range of well-being indicators and has been associated with compassion for others.Objectives: The main goal of this study was to explore how empathy and selfcompassion related to professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout). In addition, we wanted to test whether self-compassion may be a protective factor for the impact of empathy on compassion fatigue.Methods and Participants: Using a cross-sectional design, 280 registered nurses from public hospitals in Portugal's north and center region were surveyed. Professional quality of life (Professional Quality Of Life), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and self-compassion (Self-compassion Scale) were measured using validated self-report measures.Results: Correlations and regression analyses showed that empathy and self-compassion predicted the three aspects of professional quality of life. Empathic concern was positively associated with compassion satisfaction as well as with compassion fatigue.Mediation models suggested that the negative components of self-compassion explain some of these effects, and self-kindness and common humanity were significant moderators. The same results were found for the association between personal distress and compassion fatigue. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 3 Conclusions: High levels of affective empathy may be a risk factor for compassion fatigue, whereas self-compassion might be protective. Teaching self-compassion and self-care skills may be an important feature in interventions that aim to reduce burnout and compassion fatigue.Keywords: empathy; compassion fatigue; nurses; professional quality of life; selfcompassion . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 4 Introduction Empathy is a central aspect of healthcare, and has been associated with positive outcomes not only for the patient (e.g., Rakel et al., 2011;Hojat, Louis, & Markham, 2011;Blatt, LeLacheur, Galinsky, Simmens, & Greenberg, 2010) but also for the healthcare professional (Thomas et al., 2007; Shanafel et al., 2005).However, given the constant exposure to highly d...

Professional quality of life in nurses: Contribution for the validation of the Portuguese version of the Professional Quality of Life Scale-5 (ProQOL-5)

“…Studies using the ProQOL questionnaire suggest that greater professional quality of life (more compassion satisfaction, and less burnout and compassion fatigue) is related to less depression and anxiety (e.g., Hegney et al, 2014;Yadollahi, Razmjooei, Jamali, Niakan, & Ghahramani, 2016), negative affect (e.g., Hegney, Rees, Eley, Osseiran-Moisson, & Francis, 2015;Zeidner, Hadar, Matthews, & Roberts, 2013), and perceived stress (e.g., Amin, Vankar, Nimbalkar, & Phatak, 2015), and greater general psychological and physical well-being (e.g., Mullira & Ssendikadiwa, 2016;Yadollahi et al, 2016), psychological resilience (Hegney et al, 2015), emotional intelligence, adaptive coping (Zeidner et al, 2013), mindfulness (e.g., Thomas & Otis, 2010), self-compassion (e.g., Duarte, Pinto-Gouveia, & Cruz, 2016), and empathy (e.g., Duarte et al, 2016;Gleichgerrcht & Decety, 2013.…”

An investigation into compassion fatigue and self-compassion in acute medical care hospital nurses: a mixed methods study

“…A high level of perfectionism is associated with low levels of mindfulness [118] and a tendency to adopt ruminative and brooding thinking, which is a maladaptive coping strategy [119]. Individuals who over-identify and ruminate have a tendency to feel overwhelmed and carried away by their negative emotional thoughts and reactions [110]. In this study, nearly a third (30%) of the acute care nurses had low SCS scores on the Mindfulness subscale.…”

“…A study by Duarte, Pinto-Gouveia and Cruz [110] suggests that being caring, supportive and understanding towards oneself (Self-Kindness -a characteristic associated with Self-Compassion), has the potential to be protective against CF. The results of this study indicated that acute medical care hospital nurses acknowledge that helpful thinking styles on duty at work include thinking realistically and putting things in perspective.…”

Evaluación psicométrica en profesionales de enfermería de cuidados paliativos

“…En concreto, se ha expresado la preocupación por los efectos del estrés sobre la salud y el bienestar de los profesionales enfermeros (10,11). Entre los diversos problemas que caracterizan el entorno laboral de los enfermeros se han destacado factores como el bajo apoyo en las relaciones del trabajo, bajo control, necesidad continua de formación (12) y altas demandas del trabajo (11); ser trasladados a diferentes unidades clínicas de la organización, limitación de recursos, afrontar la muerte y excesiva carga de trabajo (13); rotación de turnos, demanda de tiempo (14); falta de control e implicación emocional (15); relaciones laborales ineficaces con los médicos (16); y pobres relaciones con los supervisores (17).…”