Compassion Fatigue Analysis

Action and emergency situations are what trauma nurses live for. They treat patients in state of emergency and handle different situations where the cause of injury or disease is not yet identified. Furthermore, they are trained to deal with a variety of different accidents, and work in emergency wards and other hospital locations to provide many different forms of health care. According to Katherine A. Hinderer in the article “Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Compassion Satisfaction, and Secondary Traumatic Stress in Trauma Nurses,” “trauma nursing encompasses the care of a trauma patient through the entire continuum of care.” As a consequence, a great number of this nurses suffer from compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, burnout, stress
and secondary traumatic stress. Hinderer in the article studies the relationship between the repeated exposure to the traumatic injury of the patients in a high-stress environment and the incidence of this different psychological symptoms.
Terminology
Some of the terms that were identified throughout the article were burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. In the trauma specialty there are many factors that can trigger and make the nurses susceptible to burnout. The years in the current position, the amount of hours worked per shift, as well as support and coping mechanisms are just a few of the factors that are seem to be linked to the high prevalence of burnout in trauma nurses. As stipulated by Katherine A. Hinderer, burnout encompasses emotional exhaustion, patient depersonalization, negative attitudes towards patients, and diminished feelings of personal and work accomplishments (Hinderer et.al., 2014).
Additionally, trauma nurses may develop secondary trauma stress since they are exposed to a variety of traumatic stimuli (Von et.al, 2010). Secondary traumatic stress is a stress response that can occur as a result of knowing, or helping, a traumatized or suffering person. It is being established by Hinderer et.al. (2014) that it is the development of posttraumatic stress disorder in healthcare workers and includes behaviors and emotions experienced as a result of exposure to another’s trauma. Furthermore, age and the years of experience play a huge role in the development of STS, proven by a study made with 67 ED nurses in which it was concluded that older emergency nurses had fewer symptoms of STS (Hinderer et.al, 2014). Noticeable symptoms are inability to concentrate, anger and sleep disturbances.
Last but not least, the prevalence of compassion technique in nurses is being explained by Hinderer as well.
She states that compassion fatigue is defined as the loss of a nurse’s ability to nurture patients. In a sample of 114 nurses 84.4% had moderate to high levels of CF (Hinderer et.al, 2014). According to Bao Suping, in the article Compassion Fatigue and Psychological Capital in Nurses Working in Acute Care Settings, the prevalence of compassion fatigue is negatively impacting both the quality of caring for patients and nurses’ professional quality of life (Suping & Taliaferro, 2015). On the other hand, nurses might experience compassion satisfaction as a positive outcome from working with trauma patients. Compassion satisfaction is feeling a sense of accomplishment and reward as a result of caring for trauma patients. In those who had specialized training to work with trauma victim, compassion satisfaction may actually be more prevalent than BO and
CF.
Research Analysis
Throughout the article it was examined how different psychological symptoms such as burnout, compassion and fatigue and compassion satisfaction relate to the development of STS. In addition to how personal/environmental characteristics, coping strategies, and exposure to trauma events are related to these symptoms. In the research it is proposed that the development of STS in nurses is a function of 4 key elements: personal/ environmental characteristics, the coping strategy of the nurse, exposure to traumatic events, and the reaction of the nurse to the stress of the trauma (Hinderer et.al, 2014).
This research was conducted at a large urban trauma center, with a total of 262 eligible participants from different trauma units, from which only 178 nurses were part of the research.
A packet that included 3 surveys in which no identification information, was attached to the payroll envelopes of the eligible nurses. These surveys took into consideration demographics, personal/ environmental characteristics, coping strategies, and exposure to traumatic events. The Professional Quality of Life Scale and the Penn Inventory were the instruments to conduct this research. The final results based on a total of 128 participants, 35.9% had scores consistent with burnout, 27.3% reported compassion fatigue, 7% reported secondary traumatic stress, and 78.9% had high compassion satisfaction. Common characteristics correlating with burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress were negative coworker relationships, use of medicinals, and higher number of hours per shift. High compassion satisfaction correlated with greater strength of supports, higher participation in exercise, use of meditation, and positive coworker relationships. Caring for trauma patients may lead to BO, CF, and STS; identifying predictors of these can inform the development of interventions to mitigate or minimize BO, CF, and STS in trauma nurses. (Hinderer, et.al,
2014).
Several limitations were found to be interfering with the end result of the research, which at the end was concluded that further studies were needed. Hinderer, explained that the number of participants from a single trauma center was relatively small and homogeneous; the findings in relationship to secondary traumatic stress must be interpreted with caution as the actual number of nurses within the sample that exhibited scores consistent with secondary traumatic stress was relatively low; and that there are limited instruments that are specific to nursing that assess secondary traumatic stress, and none are specific to the trauma nursing population. However, the research can be replicable.
In summary, this research covers a broad spectrum of psychological symptoms that are present in trauma nurses. However, there should be a more extensive research including nurses from different places, in which it could be verified why some nurses show symptoms of burnout, compassion fatigue, and stress traumatic stress and others do not. Additionally, this research should be done on nurses that do not practice in trauma departments, as to have a base to compare.