Combating Compassion Fatigue in Nurses Using Mindfulness Techniques

Project Abstract

Demands placed on health care professionals have steadily increased and as a result, compassion fatigue has become an issue by adversely affecting the well-being of nurses and health care organizations. Compassion fatigue is a widely accepted phenomenon in nursing, creating an array of physical and emotional manifestations, impairing a health care provider’s ability to provide optimum quality care. The goal of this quality improvement project aimed to educate and provide emergency room nurses with a resource for self-care enhancement to subsequently decrease their risk of developing compassion fatigue. Nurses of a small, rural emergency department located in the southeastern region of the United States, were educated on recognizing, preventing, and methods for treating compassion fatigue. Nurse volunteers were then asked to complete pre-intervention demographic and ProQOL-5 questionnaires before participating in self-guided mindfulness techniques via Smiling Minds mobile app 15 minutes per day, 4 days a week, for a duration of 4 weeks. After the 4 weeks, a post ProQOL-5 questionnaire and self-reported post-intervention survey were completed by the participants. The results indicated that pre-intervention with mindfulness techniques, 72.7% of participants indicated moderate risk of burnout and a moderate risk of secondary traumatic stress. Post-intervention, participants demonstrated a reduction in both burnout and secondary traumatic stress, with 33.3% risk of moderate burnout and 50% risk of both low and moderate secondary traumatic stress. Conclusion, self-care techniques have been demonstrated to positively impact the well-being of nurses and should be promoted to improve the lives of nurses and the patients they serve.

Conference

37th Annual Coalition Conference by The Kentucky Association of Nurse Practitioners & Nurse-Midwives. April 23-25, 2025 at Northern Kentucky Convention Center, Covington, Kentucky. https://www.kcnpnm.org/page/conference

Funding Type

Travel Grant

Academic College

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Area/Major/Minor

Family Nurse Practitioner

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Classification

Graduate

Name

Janice Thurmond, PhD, Summer Cross, PhD

Academic College

Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology

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