Compassionate Care: Reflections of Oncology Nurses

Compassionate care is elemental in maintaining excellence in the nursing profession. Yet compassion in some nurses can be depleted by repeated exposure to the suffering of others and result in compassion fatigue (CF) (Gustafsson & Hemberg, 2022). This paper explores why some exemplary nurses seem to forestall CF. Specifically, we investigate the attitudes of outstanding oncology nurses and the strategies they employ to sustain compassionate care in their professional lives. First, we searched through research reports from peer-reviewed journals and articles from grey literature to better understand compassionate nursing, compassion satisfaction (CS), and CF. Then we added reflections from oncology nurses who maintain compassion in their care through challenging working conditions, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature reveals that exceptional oncology nurses can sustain empathy and compassion in their care due to their outlook on life, the specific strategies they use for self-care, and their unique approaches to caring for patients and families. The nurses’ reflections help us understand the coping strategies these nurses employ and how they mitigate the effects of CF and maintain an exemplary practice. We aim to encourage nurses and organizational leaders to use (and nurse educators to teach) strategies to help increase CS, reduce CF, and restore enthusiasm for practicing nursing.