Compassion Fatigue in the Presence of Employee Engagement

There are gaps in knowledge on the concepts of compassion fatigue, employee engagement, and the role of nursing administration in the recognition of compassion fatigue. The current process for the researcher’s practicum site to determine the caring reality for the nursing staff is to issue an annual employee engagement survey. No screening tool for compassion fatigue is currently utilized. This raised questions about the existence of a relationship between the concepts of employee engagement, compassion fatigue, and the role nursing administration plays in the maintenance of a working environment that is also a positive caring reality for both the nurse and patient.

The nursing profession is synonymous with compassionate care delivery through the nurse-patient relationship. Compassion fatigue as a phenomenon degrades the nurse’s ability to form and maintain caring relationships due to the repeated exposure to suffering patients. The problem facing nursing administration is that key drivers of organizational success are underpinned in patient safety and satisfaction, variables eroded by compassion fatigue. Patient complaints and organizational based stressors are determinates of care that impact the caring culture of a nursing unit.

This study focuses on screening for compassion fatigue by nursing administration to promote compassion fatigue awareness in their units in addition to the annual employee engagement survey. A cross-sectional survey was completed in March 2018 on a post-surgical acute care nursing unit. This study utilized a convenience, in-group sample in a non-experimental design methodology using the proQOL 5 as the survey tool. The proQOL 5 has been validated in the literature and was appropriate for the research design. Seventeen acute care nurses were participants that completed the survey tool for a 34% respondent rate. Results were determined by identifying raw scores of three subscales: compassion satisfaction, burn out, and secondary stress trauma. The subscale results were then compared to the past two years of employee engagement scores for the same unit.

The data findings indicated that higher employee engagement was related to lower compassion fatigue experienced by the acute care nurses. In other words, compassion satisfaction is related to high employee engagement. Through this research process, it is recommended that nursing administration screen for compassion fatigue in addition to employee engagement. Further research is needed in the instance of low employee engagement and scores from the proOOL 5 other than compassion satisfaction. These observations, data collected, and the research highlight the crucial strategic driver for this caring environment; the effective nurse leader. Along with growing the nursing knowledge base on compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and employee engagement, the nursing profession must provide education and developmental skills to today’s nursing leaders to facilitate effective caring cultures at in the professional working environment.