Nurses are constantly exposed to a variety of stressors and ethically complex decision-making that can lead to compassion fatigue. A new study shows that when you add high levels of compassion fatigue to high levels of burnout, nurses are less likely to stay with their current employer.
Study investigators from the School of Nursing at Belmont University in Nashville surveyed 93 nurses at a 90-bed urban cancer center, measuring compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, level of burnout and turnover intention.
They found that nurses with higher levels of burnout and compassion fatigue were more likely to leave their place of employment, whereas those who had more positive feelings about their helping role were less likely to leave. Previous studies have also found that compassion fatigue has been associated with medical errors, said Diana Wells-English, DNP, FNP-BC, the study’s lead investigator.
“Future research is needed to determine the many contributors to compassion fatigue and interventions to combat it,” she said.
Study results were published in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing.
