Effect of compassion rounds on nurses' professional quality of life on a COVID-19 unit

Evidence suggests that support groups enhance nurses' professional quality of life (QOL), and positive professional QOL is associated with better patient and nurse outcomes. This study examined the effect of a unit-level support group on the professional QOL of nurses working on a progressive care unit-turned-dedicated-COVID-19 unit.

We hypothesized that a professionally facilitated Compassion Rounds (CR) support group would improve compassion satisfaction (CS) and reduce compassion fatigue (CF) among COVID-19 unit nurses.

For this pre/post, within-group trial we recruited an inclusive, convenience sample of 84 nurses on a COVID-19 unit within a 377-bed, Magnet®-designated hospital. The 10-week, CR consisted of biweekly meetings, and the ProQOL version 5 measured pre/post CS and CF.

Paired t-testing showed that CS scores fell after CR (n = 10; p = .005), while scores rose for CF burnout (p = .05) and secondary traumatic stress (p = .008). Results were similar for unpaired analysis (N = 38; p < .05).

Although pandemic-related challenges likely overwhelmed CR's potential to improve professional QOL, CR may have prevented worse deterioration of work-life quality. CR may also create clinically meaningful improvements for groups or individual nurses, and thus enhance nurse and patient outcomes.