The Mediating Effect of Emotional Regulation between Stress and Compassion Fatigue of Oncology Nurses.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate oncology nurses' compassion fatigue (CF) and whether emotional regulation mediates between stress load and CF.

Methods: Using convenience sampling, data of this cross-sectional study were collected from 471 oncology nurses from a cancer hospital. Self-administered questionnaires included socio-demographic factors, the Stress Overload Scale, the Nurse Emotional Management Scale, and the Chinese version of the Professional Quality of Life scale. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (version 22.0). The hypothesized model was tested by the structural equation model using IBM SPSS AMOS (version 21.0).

Results: Burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) of CF in oncology nurses were 21.10±5.48 and 22.22±5.24 respectively. Stress load was positively correlated with burnout (r = .64, p < .01) and STS (r = .52, p < .01). Emotional regulation was negatively correlated with stress load (r = -.47, p < .01), burnout (r = -.57, p < .01) and STS (r = -.45, p < .01). The impact of stress load on CF is mediated by emotional regulation [β = .27, 95% CI of (.21∼.35)], with the mediation effect accounting for 34.62% of the total effect. This mediation model explains 80% of the variation in CF.

Conclusions: The stress load of oncology nurses directly positively impacted their CF, emotional regulation directly negatively impacted CF, while emotional regulation mediated between stress load and CF. This study suggests that nursing managers can prevent and alleviate oncology nurses' CF not only by relieving their stress load but also by promoting their ability of emotional regulation.