Compassion Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue and Hardiness in Nurses: A Comparison before and During Covid-19 Outbreak

Abstract

Nurses provide the majority of health-care services during an epidemic. Front-line nurses face numerous health challenges during the COVID-19 epidemic. Many nurses may experience compassion fatigue in these stressful situations, putting them at risk for mental health problems. Nurses' job performance is affected by compassion satisfaction and hardiness. The purpose of this study was to compare the compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and hardiness in nurses before and during the COVID-19 outbreak. This cross-sectional study included 508 clinical nurses from public hospitals in southern Iran. The subjects were recruited using multi-stage sampling methods in 2019-2020. Sampling was performed before the COVID-19 (n = 266) and during the COVID-19 (n = 242) with a one-year interval. Demographic questionnaire, professional quality of life (ProQOL) questionnaire and Occupational Hardiness Questionnaire were used to collect data. The scores of compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and hardiness did not differ significantly during the COVID-19 compared with before the COVID-19 (p > 0.05). Before COVID-19, hardiness and work experience were variables that predicted 11% of the variance of compassion satisfaction, whereas during COVID-19, hardiness and gender were variables that predicted 26% of the variance of compassion satisfaction. Before COVID-19, hardiness and work experience were variables that predicted 3% of the variance of compassion fatigue, whereas during COVID-19, hardiness, type of employment and gender were variables that predicted 6% of the variance of compassion fatigue. The current study found that compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue did not change during the COVID-19 outbreak compared with before the COVID-19 outbreak. When compared to before the COVID-19, the hardiness and its dimensions did not change significantly.