Compassion is one of the fundamental values of nursing profession. Society

expects nurses to provide compassionate care.

Nurses are vulnerable to Compassion Fatigue. Compassion fatigue is “the reduced

capacity or interest in being empathic or bearing the suffering of others”

(Boscarino, et al., 2006, p.2). Compassion fatigue is composed of two

components: burnout and secondary traumatic stress (Figley, 2001).

As much as 37% of oncology nurses maybe at high risk to develop compassion

fatigue (Potter, 2010).

Compassion fatigue negatively impacts patient safety, patient satisfaction, nurses’

quality of life, and nurses’ professional quality of life.

Sample: Registered Nurses (N=20)

Design: one-group pretest-posttest design.

Setting: a large Midwest Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Inclusion criteria: Registered Nurses working on an oncology unit.

Exclusion criteria: currently working less than 60 hours per month.

Procedure: a trained CF facilitator facilitated a weekly 30-minute session for

4 consecutive weeks. Sessions were available during shifts 3 days a week.

Instrument: ProQOL IV is a 30 item Likert-like scale. Scale was administered

immediately before the first session and immediately after the 4th session. The

instrument has three subscales:

• Compassion satisfaction (CF)

• Burnout

• Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS)

Statistics:

• Descriptive statistics is used to describe characteristics of the sample.

• Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test is used to test significant differences between

repeated measures. A non-parametric technique is used due to its less

stringent assumption requirements and its suitability for a smaller sample.

Structure of the sessions: each session begins with listening to selected harp music

for 10 minutes, ancient Chinese stretching exercises for 5 minutes, and followed

by interactive discussions regarding compassion fatigue for 15 minutes.

In Weeks 1and 2, discussions focused on the CF concept and the social,

physiological, cognitive, and emotional mechanisms of compassion fatigue.

In Weeks 3 and 4, discussions focused on different techniques that might be used

to prevent compassion fatigue, such as Loving Kindness Meditation, Cultivate

Gratitude, and Best Possible Selves approaches. The basic cognitive techniques

are based on the Accelerated Recovery Program developed by Gentry (2002).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Chris Seckman, DNP, RN

Kevin Mallinson, PhD, RN, FAAN

Patricia Potter, PhD, RN, FAAN

Tina Scaturro-Kindle, BSN, RN

Catherine Limbaugh, MSN, RN, ACNS- BC, OCN

Sarah Olsen, BSN, RN

Nurses and their manager welcomed this unit-based compassion fatigue

educational program utilizing a combination of modalities.

A unit-based intervention could be useful in decreasing compassion fatigue

and increasing nurses’ professional quality of life.

A compassion fatigue prevention program should be routinely provided to

oncology nurses working in hospitals.

More sessions and more flexible schedules for the sessions should be

available to nurses at their work places.

More stringent research is needed to test and refine effective delivery

methods that prevent or ameliorate compassion fatigue for different

specialties and settings.

To test the feasibility of a unit-based compassion fatigue (CF) education program.

Research Question: Will a unit-based compassion fatigue education program on an

oncology unit decrease nurses’ burnout and secondary traumatic stress levels, and

increase nurses’ compassion satisfaction levels as measured by the Professional

Quality of Life IV (ProQOL IV)?

INTRODUCTION

Most of the subjects who were not able to complete the 4-week program were

too busy with work when the sessions were available, even though they had

planned in advance to participate.

Two of the participants had a vacation during the study period.

There were statistically significant reductions in Burnout and Secondary

Trauma Stress (STS) scores following participation in the CF intervention

(z=-2.018, p=0.044 and z=-2.314, p=0.021, respectively). The mean

Compassion Satisfaction scores increased, however, not to a statistically

significant level.

METHODS

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS

Unit-Based Compassion Fatigue Education Program

Suping Bao, PhD(c), ANP-BC

DNP Coordinator: Dr. Shelley DeVore PhD Chair: Dr. Donna Taliaferro

Sex

(male: female)

Age Range

(Years)

Worked at Oncology Unit

(Years)

1:19 22-58 0.8-26

Weeks Participated

1week 2weeks 3week 4weeks

1 6 8 5

PURPOSE

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Comp Burnout STS

Pre

Post

Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College of Nursing