Impact of social support to avoid compassion fatigue of public hospital nursing staff

Postgraduate Thesis uoadl:2898135 226 Read counter

Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Σχεδιασμός και Διοίκηση Υπηρεσιών Υγείας
Library of the School of Health Sciences
Deposit date:
2020-02-25
Year:
2020
Author:
Kormentza Christina-Evangelia
Supervisors info:
Λιονής Χρήστος, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική, Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
Τούντας Ιωάννης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική , ΕΚΠΑ
Καντζανού Μαρία, Επίκουρος Καθηγήτρια, Ιατρική , ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Επίδραση κοινωνικής στήριξης για την αποφυγή εμφάνισης κόπωσης συμπόνιας του νοσηλευτικού προσωπικού δημοσίων νοσοκομείων
Languages:
Greek
Translated title:
Impact of social support to avoid compassion fatigue of public hospital nursing staff
Summary:
Purpose:

Investigating the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and special characteristics of nurses regarding compassion fatigue in two hospitals in Athens, «Hippocratio» General Hospital and «Attiko» University General Hospital. Furthermore, the question of whether or not social support can be provided by nurses in order to avoid the phenomenon of "compassion fatigue" is being studied.

Study Population:
The study population was a total of 300 nurses from both hospitals in which the study was conducted. These nurses came from all educational backgrounds (university education, technology education and secondary education) and worked in the following sections:
1. Intensive Care Unit (General Unit, Cardiac Surgery Unit, Enhanced Care Unit)
2. Department of Surgery
3. Anesthesiology department
4. Pathological clinics
5. Surgical clinics
6. Department of Emergencies
The eligible nurses were only the 300 who participated in the survey from a pool of nurses from both hospitals that reached 500 nurses. Only these 300 nurses were selected as they are working in the aforementioned work divisions and belong to the educational levels we are examining (IP, TE, IP) compared to the other 200 nurses who are employed in their research hospitals, in the laboratory area of these hospitals (hematology laboratories, regular outpatient clinics) while at the same time belonging to the secondary education level and to the compulsory education (HR) level. Ineligible nurses do not interact with patients or interact with them emotionally because their duration of contact is limited or even non-existent.
Data collection:

Data collection was done using four structured closed-ended questionnaires exploring:
• The demographic characteristics of the interviewed nurses where the respondents answered questions about their marital status, professional life, their family income, etc.
• The Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL-CSF-R-IV) where respondents describe either their experiences (positive or negative) after assisting patients or their work situation or how it is shaped after continuous help third parties.
• The Self-Compassion Scale (NSCS) where respondents answer questions that show us how they behave themselves in difficult times.
• The Social Support Scale (SSS) where respondents indicate the number of people in their family and friendly environment in which they can turn for support and the degree of satisfaction with that support.
A total of three hundred (300) questionnaires were distributed. Two hundred (200) questionnaires were distributed to the Hippocrates General Hospital and the remaining one hundred (100) to the Attiko University General Hospital. Two hundred and seventy (217) nurses voluntarily participated in and completed the questionnaires. In particular, out of the two hundred (200) questionnaires distributed to the Hippocrates General Staff, one hundred and fifty-six (156) were returned and returned (71.9% response rate). Of the one hundred (100) questionnaires distributed to Attiko University General Hospital, sixty-one (61) were returned and returned (60% response rate). It took twenty minutes to complete the questionnaire. The data from the questionnaires were entered in SPSS sheets for the necessary statistical analyzes of descriptive and inductive statistics, with central trend measures and statistical criteria for correlations and differences. The results of the data analyze are presented in the following chapter.
Results:

It was observed that 88.5% of health professionals and nurses in particular had a moderate level of compassion (compassion fatigue), 99% of them had a moderate level of burnout and 55.8% had a moderate level of secondary traumatic stress ( secondary traumatic stress) These percentages refer to the average 42-year-old female nurses who follow a shift in their shifts and belong to the technological level of education. In addition, it was observed that 46.1% of nurses tend to feel compassion for their peers, while 27.8% of nurses surveyed state that they are surrounded by people who can support them in difficult times in a very satisfactory way. level. Furthermore, it was observed that nurses' professional burnout is influenced by their level of education (p-value 0.038 <0.05) and their desire to change hospital (p-value = 0.000 <0.05). The appearance of compassion satisfaction (compassion fatigue) was observed to be directly related to the nurses' desire to change working part of the hospital working (p-value = 0.0109 <0.05). The occurrence of secondary traumatic stress was observed to be influenced by nurses' decision to re-choose their profession today (p-value 0.008 <0.05). In addition, it was observed that despite the help and support that nurses may receive from their social environment, would prevent their children from pursuing a nursing profession (p-value 0.016 <0.05).
Conclusions:
Taking into account the results of the questionnaires on the Scale of Professional Quality of Life we conclude that compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress are phenomena of our time. Nurses are emotionally exhausted by their constant exposure to and participation in the pain of caring patients despite the social support they seem to receive from their peers, according to the analysis of the results of the questionnaires on the scale of social support.
In the future, ways should be devised and implemented to support psychologists with the help of a specialist and to discharge their continuous circular working hours and consequently their continued exposure to problems. They need to be motivated to have enough free time to pursue activities outside the workplace that will in turn provide them with pleasure, satisfaction and psychological reassurance by making their work performance a continuous flow.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Compassion fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress, Nurse, Health Professional, Social Support
Index:
Yes
Number of index pages:
2
Contains images:
Yes
Number of references:
50
Number of pages:
64
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