Compassion Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue and Hardiness Among Nurses: A Comparison Before and During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Predictors of quality of professional life and well-being of medical residents and interns: Role of gender and workplace spirituality

Background and Aims

The well-being of physicians in their professional lives has a major influence on the quality of medical care and patient outcomes. This study explored how Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) and psychological well-being are connected to workplace spirituality (WPS) and demographic factors like age and gender. It also compared the average levels of ProQOL, psychological well-being, and WPS between medical residents and interns.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study, 230 medical residents and interns completed three questionnaires, including ProQOL, Ryff Scale Psychological Wellbeing-Short Form, and WPS. The data was analysed using Pearson correlation, independent t-test, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression modeling.

Results

Residents and interns had moderate ProQOL levels and higher work spirituality. However, medical residents scored lower in occupational spirituality and compassionate care fulfillment compared to interns while experiencing higher levels of emotional exhaustion and secondary mental strain. Gender disparities were significant, with women scoring higher in compassionate care fulfillment but lower in secondary mental strain. Regression analysis showed that occupational spirituality positively predicted professional, compassionate care fulfillment (B = 0.910, p < 0.001) but negatively predicted emotional exhaustion in both groups.

Conclusions

These findings underscore the importance of understanding factors like gender and work spirituality to enhance the well-being and quality of care provided by medical residents and interns.

Psychological Hardiness and Compassion Satisfaction Among the Turkish Red Crescent: The Case of 2023 Kahramanmaras Earthquake

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed psychological hardiness and compassion satisfaction among the Türk Kızılay (Turkish Red Crescent) personnel and volunteers involved in the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake. Additionally, the relationship between compassion satisfaction and psychological hardiness was also investigated.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted between March and July 2023. Participants completed an online survey, which included the Sociodemographic Information Form, Psychological Hardiness Scale, and Compassion Satisfaction Scale. The data was analyzed with SPSS version 25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, USA), using a significance level of 95% and p < 0.05.

RESULTS

The study involved 400 participants, comprising 84 (21%) personnel and 316 (79%) volunteers. Participants exhibited an average psychological hardiness level of 24.56 ± 7.25 and a compassion satisfaction level of 47.40 ± 17.28. A significant positive correlation was observed between compassion satisfaction and psychological hardiness (r = 0.571; p < 0.001). The results of logistics regression have revealed that the level of psychological hardiness is higher in males compared to females (OR = 1.930, CI = 1.115 - 3.340; P < 0.05) and is also higher in those with high compassion satisfaction compared to those with low compassion satisfaction (OR = 1.386, CI = 1.256 - 1.529; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study indicate that individuals involved in disaster response should consider compassion satisfaction as an important tool for enhancing psychological hardiness.

Compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress among nurses after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background

Nurses frequently experience compassion fatigue and burnout, which impact their personal lives and patient care. The COVID-19 pandemic additionally caused stress, uncertainty, and fear of death among healthcare professionals.

Aim

To assess professional quality of life (ProQoL) among nurses after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Material and Methods

A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 203 nurses using a purposive sampling technique in the month of September to December 2021. Data were collected using a self-administered ProQoL scale version 5.

Statistical Analysis

Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used. Bivariate correlations were used to correlate the main variables. Multiple linear regression analysis was also performed.

Results

The majority of the nurses reported a moderate level of compassion satisfaction (CS) (62.6%), burnout (BO) (66.0%), and secondary traumatic stress (STS) (63.1%). Residence and education emerged as a factor whether the nurses experienced BO or STS, respectively. Additionally, CS negatively correlated with BO (r = -0.732: P < 0.001) and STS (r = -0.141: p-0.04).

Conclusions

The majority of the nurses experienced moderate levels of CS, BO, and STS after the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis and nurse patient-ratio emerged as a significant factor to predict CS, BO, or STS. Hence, effective measures need to be implemented by hospital administration to enhance the nurses' satisfaction and reduce fatigue and burnout.

Compassion fatigue in healthcare providers: a scoping review

The detrimental impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare providers' psychological health and well-being continue to affect their professional roles and activities, leading to compassion fatigue. The purpose of this review was to identify and summarize published literature on compassion fatigue among healthcare providers and its impact on patient care. Six databases were searched: MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, for studies on compassion fatigue in healthcare providers, published in English from the peak of the pandemic in 2020 to 2023. To expand the search, reference lists of included studies were hand searched to locate additional relevant studies. The studies primarily focused on nurses, physicians, and other allied health professionals. This scoping review was registered on Open Science Framework (OSF), using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) extension to scoping review. From 11,715 search results, 24 met the inclusion criteria. Findings are presented using four themes: prevalence of compassion fatigue; antecedents of compassion fatigue; consequences of compassion fatigue; and interventions to address compassion fatigue. The potential antecedents of compassion fatigue are grouped under individual-, organization-, and systems-level factors. Our findings suggest that healthcare providers differ in risk for developing compassion fatigue in a country-dependent manner. Interventions such as increasing available personnel helped to minimize the occurrence of compassion fatigue. This scoping review offers important insight on the common causes and potential risks for compassion fatigue among healthcare providers and identifies potential strategies to support healthcare providers' psychological health and well-being.

The psychometric properties of the Persian version of the moral injury symptoms scale-health care professionals version

Background

Health care professionals face a number of problems during crises, such as the COVID-19. Studies addressed the prevalence of moral injury among healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak. Lack of a valid standard of moral injury among health care professionals is one of the factors that has made it difficult to identify and treat this complication. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Moral Injury Symptoms Scale-Health Care Professionals (MISS-HP) among health care professionals in Iran.

Methods

This study was conducted to evaluate the validity and reliability of the MISS-HP. The sample included 455 healthcare professionals working in four teaching hospitals in Kerman, who were in direct contact with patients. In this study, face validity, content validity, construct validity (structural and convergent), and internal reliability of the MISS-HP were evaluated. Demographic information questionnaire, the Moral Injury Symptoms Scale-HealthCare Professionals (MISS-HP), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and Impact of Event Scale (IES) were administered to study participants.

Results

The MISS-HP was evaluated using translation-back translation technique. The content validity index of the items (I-CVI) and the scale (S-CVI) were 0.9 and 0.99, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis showed a three-factor structure in the MISS-HP that explained 57.49% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis indices were acceptable. The cut-off point of the questionnaire was 36.5. There was a positive and moderate correlation between the Persian version of MISS-HP, GHQ (r = 0.34), and IES-R (r = 0.40). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the Persian version of MISS-HP was 0.70.

Conclusion

This study found that the MISS-HP is a concise, comprehensive, valid and reliable scale for assessing moral injury among health care professionals in clinical or research settings. This scale will be helpful for managers and researchers to identify and plan health policies and improve the psychological state of health care professionals.

Predictive Factors of the Burnout Syndrome Occurrence in the Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is probably the most critical epidemiological situation that human civilization has faced in the last few decades. In this context, of all the professional categories involved in the management of patients with COVID-19 are the most likely to develop burnout syndrome. The main objective of this study is to analyze specific predictive factors of the occurrence and development of the burnout syndrome in the healthcare workers involved in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with COVID-19. The study focused on determining factors of the occurrence, development and maintaining the specific burnout syndrome related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic infection. The study was conducted on a sample of 959 participants, medical personnel from all the public medical entities in Romania(including 5 hospitals): 122 male and 755 female (82 participants did not declare their gender), with a mean age of 42.29 years (SD = 9.97). The sample included 219 doctors, 477 nurses, 214 auxiliary medical personnel and 49 other types of hospital workers. A cross-sectional design was used. Three predictors of the burnout syndrome were identified: Work conditions, Fear of the consequences (including death) determined by the COVID-19 and Need for emotional support. Meaning of work had a moderating role. Several moderated mediation models were tested. The indirect relationship of Work conditions with burnout via Fear of infection was statistically significant; in addition, the indirect effect of Work conditions on burnout through both fear of infection and need for support was statistically significant. The moderation analysis showed that Meaning of work buffer the relationship between Work conditions and Fear of infection. The variance explained by the model including the moderator (30%) was higher than the variance explained by Model 1 (27%), showing that adding the moderating effect of Meaning of work to the relationship of Work conditions with burnout was relevant. The results could be used to design specific interventions to reduce the occurrence of the burnout syndrome in healthcare workers, the implementation of a strategy to motivate employees by highlighting and recognizing the high significance of the work of those in the frontline of the fight against COVID-19.