Date of Award

Spring 2022

Document Type

Project – Full Written

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Committee Chair

Brittany Hudgins-Graham

Abstract

Compassion fatigue causes a ripple effect that impacts caregivers, patient outcomes, and the reliability of healthcare organizations. Jarrad et al. (2018) suggests the physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and organizational consequences of compassion fatigue are so extensive that they threaten the integrity of the nurse. Addressing compassion fatigue in critical care nurses is an indispensable part of maintaining the integrity and trust of the healthcare profession. It is imperative to care for the caregivers to warrant a solid foundation for optimal patient outcomes and engagement. Self-education and awareness, nursing leadership involvement, and self-care are integral to ensuring that compassion fatigue does not pilot the “cost of caring” (Sabery et al., 2017). The relationship between burnout and the cost of caring has implications for multilevel efforts to prevent and treat burnout, minimize errors, and improve standards of care (Haik et al., 2017). Integrating education will promote nullification, early identification, and management of compassion fatigue in critical care nurses. Education and intervention methods will assist in productive mental health of individual nurses, contribute to improved patient outcomes, and assist in building an organizational culture that fosters nurse empowerment and retention.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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