Empathy, compassion fatigue, guilt and secondary traumatic stress in nurses

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 494-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shekoofeh Mottaghi ◽  
Hanieh Poursheikhali ◽  
Leila Shameli

Background: Nurses are often faced with many stressful situations in life, including personal life challenges, the nature of work that requires standing long and being focused, commitment to patient care, and dealing with patients who need help. Research objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between empathy and compassion fatigue in nurses due to the mediating role of feeling guilty and secondary traumatic stress. Research design: This is a descriptive-correlation study. Participants: The statistical population consisted of all the nurses in Kerman hospitals in 2017. Five hospitals were randomly selected from among the private and public hospitals in Kerman. The sample size was considered 360, but after the deletion of misleading questionnaires, the final sample of study consisted of 300 nurses. Ethical considerations: Approval from the researcher’s university Institutional Review Board for ethical review was obtained. Findings: The data analysis in this study was done through the path analysis method using the Amos software. The results showed the mediating role of omnipotent guilt between empathy and compassion fatigue in the nurses, the mediating role of survivor guilt between empathy and compassion fatigue in the nurses, and the mediating role of secondary traumatic stress between empathy and compassion fatigue in the nurses. Also, empathy could explain 77% of the nurses’ compassion fatigue through feelings of guilt and secondary traumatic stress. Discussion: Pathogenic empathy-based guilt and secondary traumatic stress may help explain some of the links between clinical empathy and symptoms of compassion fatigue. Conclusion: Interventions and training programs targeting pathogenic empathy-based guilt and empathic secondary traumatic stress may be particularly important to help reduce compassion fatigue.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javad Dehghannezhad ◽  
Vahid Zamanzadeh ◽  
Neda Gilani ◽  
Azad Rahmani ◽  
Abbas Dadashzadeh

IntroductionEmergency medical technicians who provide emergency care for patients in a critical condition often experience compassion satisfaction through assisting these patients. However, helping ill and injured patients can also lead to compassion fatigue. Identifying the link between compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue is important to enhance patient care.MethodsThis is a descriptive correlation study. A total of 248 pre-hospital emergency personnel from pre-hospital emergency centres in East Azarbaijan, Iran, were selected by cluster sampling. Professional quality of life tools, including compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue (occupational burnout, secondary traumatic stress) were employed. Data was modeled on Stata Statistical Software: Release 14, and the correlation between factors was investigated through Pearson and Canonical correlation analyses.ResultsThe average scores of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue were moderate. Reverse relationship and mean negative correlation (r=-0.40) were obtained between the two areas. In the ‘compassion fatigue’ category, the secondary traumatic stress sub-scale had a higher focal load (0.96) in comparison to burnout (0.32). Education, workplace and workload were significantly correlated with compassion fatigue, as were marital status and workplace with compassion satisfaction.ConclusionThe model indicated that compassion satisfaction correlates inversely with compassion fatigue. Workplace, workload reduction, marital status and educational promotion reduce compassion fatigue therefore to enhance pre-hospital care these factors should be taken into consideration.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi A. AL-Abrrow

AbstractThis study examines the effect of perceived organisational politics on organisational silence through the mediating role of organisational cynicism. In addition, it tests the effect of perceived support on this relationship. A quantitative (questionnaire survey) design was used to gather data from 346 employees in three public hospitals in Iraq. The structural equation model was used for data analysis. The results demonstrate that all the major hypotheses were accepted, and important role of perceived support in reversing the positive relationship between perceived organisational politics and organisational cynicism was also highlighted. Furthermore, the mediating role was clear in terms of organisational cynicism and the relationship between perceived organisational politics and organisational silence.


Knowledge sharing is vital for any organization, and it has an essential impact on developing ‎‎skills, increasing value, and maintaining a competitive advantage in the organization. In the knowledge management (KM) literature, ‎‎perceived organizational support and organizational trust have been pointed out as ‎‎primary factors for knowledge sharing. The present study investigated the role of ‎‎perceived organizational support in promoting nurses’ knowledge sharing, considering ‎‎organizational trust as a mediator‎. The cross-sectional study design was applied to examine the ‏hypothesized relationships.‏ ‎Data were ‎‎collected using three questionnaires from three hundred thirty ‎‎nurses working in five public hospitals in Shiraz city. The Partial Least Squares Structural ‎‎Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to analyze data. The results revealed a significant and positive association between perceived organizational support, organizational trust, and knowledge sharing. The findings also demonstrated that organizational trust plays a mediating role between perceived organizational support and knowledge sharing.


Mindfulness ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 460-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sindy Y. C. Yip ◽  
Winnie W. S. Mak ◽  
Floria H. N. Chio ◽  
Rita W. Law

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