Prevalence and predictors for compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction in nursing students during clinical...

Compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction affect clients' care satisfaction and nurses' well-being. However, little attention is paid to compassion fatigue and satisfaction in nursing students during clinical placement.

To explore the relationships between social support, empathy, resilience, coping strategies, and compassion fatigue and satisfaction in nursing students during clinical placement in China.

A cross-sectional study was performed from May 1 to May 31, 2020.

and participants: A total of 972 nursing students from 15 universities or colleges in Sichuan province, who received clinical training for at least 10 months were investigated.

The instruments included Perceived Social Support Scale, Jefferson Scale of Empathy, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Simple Coping Style Questionnaire and Professional Quality of Life Scale. Descriptive, correlation and regression analyses of these variables were conducted.

The prevalence of low, moderate and high risk of burnout were 1.3%, 97.8% and 0.9%, respectively. The prevalence of low, average and high levels of secondary traumatic stress were 43.6%, 55.3% and 1.1%. Moreover, 9 (0.9%), 316 (32.5%) and 647 (66.6%) respondents reported low, moderate and high levels of compassion satisfaction. Cognitive empathy and resilience were significant protectors from compassion fatigue, and significant contributors to compassion satisfaction. Less compassionate care and more passive coping were significant risk factors for compassion fatigue. Adaptive coping predicted burnout significantly and negatively, and predicted compassion satisfaction significantly and positively. Family support was a significant contributor to compassion satisfaction.

It is essential to develop strategies to increase empathy and resilience, avoid passive coping and enhance adaptive coping, and improve family support in order to reduce compassion fatigue and facilitate compassion satisfaction in nursing students during clinical clerkship.