Psychiatric wards nurses' experiences on self-compassion, compassionate care and compassion fatigue: A qualitative study

Compassion is an important component of providing quality nursing care, and the concept of compassionate care is discussed in detail in the nursing literature. However, the literature on compassionate care in psychiatric nursing is limited. Beyond the concept of compassionate care in the literature, there is a need to explore the meaning of self-compassion, compassionate care, and compassion fatigue in the context of psychiatric nursing. This research has a descriptive qualitative design. The aim of this research is to reveal the experiences of psychiatric ward nurses regarding self-compassion, compassionate care, and compassion fatigue. The research was conducted with 16 nurses working in the psychiatric ward of Al Diwaniyah Teaching Hospital and selected through purposeful sampling between October 15 and November 15, 2023. Data were collected face-to-face with the "Introductory Information Form" and the "Semi-Structured Individual In-Depth Interview Form" prepared by the researchers by reviewing the literature. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis with an inductive approach. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines were followed in the reporting of this research. As a result of the analysis of the data, two main themes and six subthemes emerged: (1) the barriers to compassion and caring care from the perspective of psychiatric nurses were included under the theme of "freedom in difficulties" and (2) self-compassion, barriers to self-compassion and reflections of compassion fatigue on psychiatric nurses from the perspective of psychiatric nurses and self-compassion against compassion fatigue were included under the theme of "togetherness of pain". In this study, psychiatric nurses accompanied both the patients and themselves with their suffering and difficulties, and liberated themselves with feelings of pity and helplessness, a helping spirit and responsibility in the difficulties and provided compassionate care to their patients. There are institutional, social and individual barriers that prevent psychiatric nurses from providing compassionate care. These findings indicate that psychiatric nurses need individual and organizational resources to provide compassionate care. It is thought that developing programs to improve the self-compassionate care of psychiatric nurses by institution managers and policy makers may be effective in reducing compassion fatigue and providing compassionate care.