Study On The Relationship Between Compassion Fatigue And Professional Identity In Critical Care Nurse

Objectives The study was to investigate the status of professional identity and compasson fatigue of ICU nurses. And the study was to further explore the relationship between compassion fatigue and professional identity of ICU nurses. The results of the investigation would provide a theoretical basis for nursing managers who will formulate a special strategy of support for nurses in order to stabilize the nursing team and improve job performance.Methods Subjects were selected from a convenience sample that nurses in intensive care unit during June in2013to July in2013from six tertiary hospitals in Shandong province. The study conducted the questionnaire survey by questionnaire. The questionnaires included three parts:the general information questionnaire, the Chinese Revised Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), Professional Identity scale.Using SPSS17.0statistical software for data entry and analysis, including descriptive analysis, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple stepwise regression analysis.Results A total of200intensive care nurses were investigated by questionnaire survey and193(96.5%) effective questionnaire have been got. Detailed information was as follows:1. The compassion satisfaction score was29.01±4.96; the secondary traumatic stress score was30.96±4.59; the burn out score was28.43±2.02.2. The main factors affecting ICU nurse’compassion fatigue are professional identity、job satisfaction、gender and selecting nursing desire. 3. The professional identity total scores was98.29±16.20, score of each dimension respectively:the professional identity evaluation score was29.52±5.34; the professional social skill score was20.06±3.41; the dealing with professional frustration score was19.52±3.30; the professional self-reflection score was9.56±1.91; the professional social support score was18.69±3.79.4. The main factors affecting ICU nurse’ professional identity are compassion satisfaction、burn out、secondary traumatic stress、job satisfaction and selecting nursing desire.5. There was a positive correlation between professional identity of ICU nurses and compassion sastifaction and secondary traumatic stress (P<0.05),but burn out had a negative correlation with professional identity (P<0.01).Compassion fatigue total score were positively correlated to all the variable scores of professional identity (correlation coefficients were0.372-0.522).6. Multiple stepwise regression analysis for professional identity total score showed that, to remove the effect of demographic variables on occupation identity, variation of secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, job burnout can explain31.9%of the total variance.7. Multiple stepwise regression analysis for compassion fatigue total score showed that the demographic variables and occupation identity is explained29.4%of the variation of the total variance.Conclusion1. ICU nurses’ compassion fatigue was at middle level. Nurses have a low level of compassioncsatisfaction, burnout at a high level. Therefore, ICU nurses in China prone to compassion fatigue.2. The professional identity, job satisfaction, gender and selecting nursing desire were significantly correlated with compassion fatigue of ICU nurses.Nursing administrators should pay full attention to nurse’s emotional experience, improving the ability of empathy, so as to improve nursing satisfaction and reduce the incidence of nurse’s compassion fatigue.3. The compassion fatigue, job satisfaction and selecting nursing desire were significantly correlated with professional identity of ICU nurses.Nursing administrators should pay more attention and more communication to stimulate work enthusiasm of nurses in order to experience the occupation accomplishment. At the same time, nursing administrators should establish a fair and reasonable salary system, increase the promotion opportunities, improve nurse satisfaction, and improve the level of occupation identity.4. Each factor of professional identity was positively related to compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress, was negatively correlated with the score of burnout. In other words, the higher level of nurses’ professional identification, the lower the rate of burnout.