Current situation and influencing factors of compassion fatigue in ICU nurses

Objective To investigate current situation of compassion fatigue of ICU nurses and to analyze its influencing factors. Methods By convenient sampling, a self-designed general information questionnaire, Chinese version of the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale (C-CFSS) , Ego-Resilience Scale (ERS) and Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS) were used to investigate 194 ICU nurses in a ClassⅢ Grade A hospital in Yantai from May 2019 to June 2019. The t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were used for statistical analysis. Results The total C-CFSS score of ICU nurses is (58.85±36.2) . ICU nurses had a moderate compassion fatigue level. The ICU nurse's ERS score was (39.96±7.65) , the PSSS score was (61.15±14.65) . The univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in C-CFSS scores among nurses of different ages, department beds, final education, self-perceived health status, monthly income, parenting (P<0.05) ; Correlation analysis showed that ICU nurse ERS score was negatively correlated with C-CFSS score (r=-0.200, P<0.01) ; PSSS score was negatively correlated with C-CFSS score (r=-0.278, P<0.01) . The results of multivariate analysis showed that age, the number of beds in the department, final education, self-perceived health status, and understanding of social support were the main influencing factors of compassion fatigue among ICU nurses, which together explained 30.1% of the total variation of compassion fatigue (F=9.673, P<0.01) . Conclusions The overall degree of compassion fatigue of ICU nurses is moderate. As nursing managers, they should pay attention to ICU nurses with different characteristics such as age, educational background and health status, carry out lectures and training on compassion fatigue, increase the social support of ICU nurses and formulate corresponding preventive intervention measures, so as to reduce the occurrence of compassion fatigue. Key words: Intensive care unit; Nurses; Compassion fatigue; Ego-resilience; Social support