The relationship between professional commitment and compassion fatigue of nurses

Objective: This study was planned to investigate the relationship between professional commitment and compassion fatigue of nurses. Materials and Methods:This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted between April 2022 and January 2023 with 180 nurses who worked in a state hospital. "Nurse Identification Form", "Nursing Commitment Scale" and "Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale" were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed with SPSS 15.0 (Statistical Package Social Science). In the analysis of the data, number percentage distribution and descriptive statistics were performed to identify demographic characteristics. The appropriateness of the data to normal distribution was examined by Kolmogorov-Simirnov normality test (HMBÖ K-S: 0,074; p: 0,017; MYKÖ K-S: 0,068; p: 0,041).Since the data did not show a normal distribution, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis test and Spearman correlation analysis were used. Findings: It was determined that 50% of the nurses participating in the study were 33 years of age or older, 73.9% were women, 57.8% were undergraduate graduates, 63.9% were married, and 42.8% did not have children. The mean score of the Commitment to the Profession Scale was determined to be 66,37±13,89. Willingness to Perform High Efforts, Continuationof Profession Membership, Faith to Professional Goals and Values subscales had means of 30,72±7,79, 21,66±5,38 and 13,98±2,94 respectively.The Secondary Trauma and Job Burnout subscales had means of 20,22±10,35 and 38,63±16,25respectively.mean score of the Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale was determined to be 58,86±24,38. A medium-level negative correlation between the total score of the Commitment to the Profession Scale and the Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale was determined. Conclusion: As the level of professional commitment of the nurses' increases, the level of compassion fatigue decrease.