Resilience and Compassion Fatigue Among Registered Nurses in Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT
 
 INTRODUCTION: In the healthcare sector, nurses provide health care services to different clients which can result in compassion fatigue. The resilience of nurses helps to provide control of compassion fatigue. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a relationship between resilience and compassion fatigue and to find a significant difference in resilience and compassion fatigue in terms of sex, age, and clinical experience.
 
 METHOD: Correlational research design was utilized; 249 registered nurses were conveniently sampled from Ghana. The study utilized a Resilience questionnaire Scale developed by Wagnild and Young (1993) while the Professional quality of life (ProQOL) scale developed by Stamm (2010) was adopted and modified for compassion fatigue. The statistical treatments used were Pearson Correlation, t-test, and ANOVA was to address the research questions.
 RESULTS: The study showed that there was a high positive significant relationship between resilience and compassion fatigue. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in age and sex on compassion fatigue but no significant difference in clinical experience. Sex and clinical experience showed a significant difference in resilience but no significant difference when age is considered.
 DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION: The results of the study suggest that registered nurses in Ghana experience high compassion fatigue. In preventing the compassion fatigue of the nurses, measures should be instituted to increase their resilience level. Healthcare administrators should put measures to reduce the compassion fatigue of the nurses. Further researchers should explore other variables in relation to the resilience to help reduce the compassion fatigue of nurses.