Latent profile analysis of compassion fatigue and its relationship with humanistic care ability among psychiatric nurses in Henan Province

Objective To explore the potential categories of compassion fatigue in psychiatric nurses and their relationship with humanistic care ability. Methods From December 2024 to January 2025, 1,093 nurses in the psychiatry departments of second-level and above psychiatric specialty hospitals and general hospitals in Henan Province were selected as study subjects by convenience sampling method, and they were investigated by using a general information questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Short Scale for compassion Fatigue, and the Chinese version of the Behavioral Scale for Caring. Mplus 8.3 (Muthén & Muthén, Los Angeles, CA, USA.) was used for potential profile analysis, and SPSS 27.0 software was used to compare the scores of psychiatric nurses with different categories of compassion fatigue on humanistic caring competence. Results Psychiatric nurses' compassion fatigue could be categorized into 3 potential categories: low compassion fatigue-stable adaptation type (47.8%), Moderate compassion fatigue-fluctuating pressure type (42.3%), and High compassion fatigue-emotional exhaustion type (9.9%). The results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that gender, health status, and whether or not they had received humanistic care training were influential factors affecting the potential profiles of compassion fatigue among psychiatric nurses. Comparison of the dimensions and total scores of the Caring Behavior Scale for psychiatric nurses with different compassion fatigue categories showed statistically significant differences (all P < 0.05). The higher the score of caring ability, the lower the score of compassion fatigue. Conclusion This study identified three distinct latent profiles of compassion fatigue among psychiatric nurses using latent profile analysis: low compassion fatigue–stable adaptation type (47.8%, mean score 23.58 ± 9.72), Moderate compassion fatigue–fluctuating pressure type (42.3%, mean score 62.77 ± 10.21), and High compassion fatigue–emotional exhaustion type (9.9%, mean score 98.93 ± 15.34). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that male nurses were more likely to belong to the high compassion fatigue group (OR = 2.175, 95% CI: 1.261-3.750, P = 0.005), while good health status (OR = 0.052, 95% CI: 0.013-−0.209, P < 0.001) and prior humanistic care training (OR = 0.305, 95% CI: 0.180-−0.517, P < 0.001) significantly reduced the probability of being classified into the high compassion fatigue category. Furthermore, significant differences in humanistic caring ability were observed across the three profiles: nurses in the low compassion fatigue group scored highest on the Caring Behaviors Inventory (total score 90.43 ± 9.21), followed by the moderate group (82.64 ± 10.88) and the high group (80.64 ± 14.19) ( F = 84.062, P < 0.001 for total score; all dimension scores also showed P < 0.001). These findings provide a granular understanding of the heterogeneity in compassion fatigue among psychiatric nurses and its strong association with humanistic caring competence. Nursing managers should develop targeted, profile-specific interventions-such as psychological resilience training for high-risk groups, stress management programs for the moderate group, and reinforcement of adaptive coping strategies for the low compassion fatigue group-to mitigate compassion fatigue and thereby enhance the quality of humanistic care.