Mitigating Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is the physical, emotional, and spiritual result of chronic self-sacrifice and/or prolonged exposure to difficult situations that renders a person unable to love, nurture, care for, or empathize with another’s suffering. The attributes that led nursing leadership to believe compassion fatigue (CF) was an issue for registered nurses (RN) at the project site facility included increased RN turnover, vacancy rates, absenteeism, and dissatisfaction. The project was to develop a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for the RN staff of an inpatient psychiatric hospital. The practice question was as follows: Does the evidence support usability of a standardized practice guideline to address CF among RNs on a lodge in a psychiatric hospital in the southeast region of the United States of America? The clinical practice guideline included an intervention plan for RN staff members who display symptoms of CF. The guideline was developed by synthesis of the literature. Randomized control trials using a cognitive behavioral approach resulted in significant reduction in CF among psychiatric RNs. The CONSORT guidelines and ProQOL 5 were used pre and post intervention to measure levels of perceived CF. The results were increased resilience and decreased emotional distress associated with CF. The extant research supported that forming an emotionally healthy nursing workforce is essential to quality care delivery. The domain scores from three content expert reviewers ranged from 29% - 89%. The final developed clinical practice guideline for the RN team to utilize on a regular and as needed basis has the potential to mitigate compassion fatigue. It is important to address this phenomenon within nursing to maintain viable, empathetic, competent RN caregivers.