Determination of compassion failure in nurse giving intensive care and palliative care: A scale development study

Introduction and Purpose: Compassion fatigue, which is a result of nurses' caring behavior and also affects nurses' caring behavior, has negative consequences for patients, nurses, and the institution. Identifying compassion fatigue in the early period and applying coping strategies to avoid negative consequences is essential. This research was planned to develop a measurement tool to determine compassion fatigue in nurses to provide intensive care and palliative care and to conduct a validity and reliability study of the developed measurement tool. Materials and Methods: This research was carried out in a methodological type using a mixed pattern and was conducted with 313 nurses working in intensive care and palliative care services of two educational research and a state hospital. The item pool of the scale was formed from 81 items and presented to the expert's opinion. As a result of the scope validity, the candidate scale was created with 45 items. The data were analyzed using content analysis in the qualitative method, normality tests in the quantitative method, exploratory factor analysis, maximum likelihood, varimax rotation, Pearson Correlation test, and Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient. Findings: It was determined that 66% of the participants were between the ages of 26-31, 61% were women, and 94% were undergraduate graduates. As a result of the explanatory factor analysis determined a total of 27 items and a 5-factor structure on the scale, such as the physical impact, working conditions, care, psychological impact, and social and spiritual impact. It was determined that the scope validity index of the scale was 0.79, the total variance was 41.498%, the item-total test correlation values ranged from 0.330 to 0.673, and the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient ranged from 0.613 to 0.827 in the sub-dimensions. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.782, the omega coefficient was calculated as 0.781, andthe CR coefficient was calculated as 0.830. Result: The analysis found that the Compassion Fatigue Scale in Intensive Care and Palliative Care Nurses (MERY) is a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine the compassion fatigue levels of intensive care and palliative care nurses.