Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue among emergency department registered nurses

Responses of emergency nurses caring for patients who experience suffering or trauma have received little attention. These effects may be positive, leading to compassion satisfaction, or negative, causing compassion fatigue. A descriptive study of these variables in ninety-three participants who were members of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) was conducted using the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) instrument. Results yielded a statistically significant inverse relationship between the variables of age and secondary traumatic stress (p <.05). Other variables approached statistical significance with a positive relationship: age and compassion satisfaction (p = .10); age and compassion fatigue ( p = .08); and years as a registered nurse and compassion fatigue (p = .07). An inverse relationship between years as an emergency nurse and secondary traumatic stress (p = .10) also approached statistical significance. Findings support the presence of compassion satisfaction as a positive experience for emergency nurses, and compassion fatigue as a problem that should be recognized and prevented.