The relationship of the work environment to compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue in critical care nurses

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

Due to an increased demand for nurses and high attrition, a deficit of 260,000 nurses is expected by 2025. One contributing factor to the current shortage is nurses’ exposure to unhealthy work environments. Nurses who work in such environments may be at higher risk for low levels of compassion satisfaction and high levels of compassion fatigue. Empirically, and when examined as separate constructs, the nurses’ work environment, compassion satisfaction, and compassion fatigue have been linked to retention. Researchers have theorized that the nurses’ work environment may promote the experience of compassion fatigue, while others have indicated that the positive aspects of nursing work may encourage the experience of compassion satisfaction. To date, empirical testing of these hypotheses has been limited. Therefore, it is unknown how the work environment contributes to nurses’ experiences of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. To address this gap in knowledge, this study examined the relationship of the work environment to compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue in critical care nurses.

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