Prevalence of compassion fatigue, burnout, compassion satisfaction, and associated factors among nurses working in cancer treatment centers in Ethiopia, 2020.

Background: Overuse of compassion for those under the care may threaten their professional life. In Ethiopia, there is limited study on the consequences of compassionate care. Therefore, the study assessed the effects of compassionate care among nurses.

Objective: To quantify the prevalence of compassion satisfaction, burnout, compassion fatigue, and associated factors among Nurses.

Methods: Institution-based quantitative cross-sectional design was conducted in five randomly selected public hospitals in Ethiopia, from May to April 2020. All the nurses who were working in the cancer treatment centers of the five hospitals were included in the study. Data were collected using a standard self-administer structured question using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (PROQOL) instrument version 5. The data were analyzed by using the SPSS 21version. Descriptively: frequency, mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics: t-Test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regression analysis were computed.

Result: The majority of respondents 154 (67.0%) were female. The age of the participants ranges from 20 to 65 (32.06 + 7.45) years. The mean (SD) scores for the dimensions of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue were 34.41 (6.74), 27.70 (4.24), and 35.83 (7.78) respectively. Neuroticism personality trait had positivity related to compassion fatigue (P = 0.001). Nurses who received low monthly income had significantly lower scores for compassion fatigue (P = 0.002). We found friend support, openness, sex, and agreeableness explained 32.7% (p < 0.024) of the variances in compassion satisfaction.

Conclusion: In general the study found high compassion fatigue and low compassion satisfaction. Further, having low income and neuroticism personality were related to compassion fatigue, while agreeableness, consciousness, and openness personality were related to compassion satisfaction. Therefore, attention should be given to nurses working in cancer centers to ensure positive energy.