Variations in the compassion experience of Jordanian pediatric nurses: A comparative study using cluster analysis

Nurses working in intensive care units are more likely to experience low compassion satisfaction and higher levels of compassion fatigue. This study examined differences in pediatric nurses' compassion experiences based on admission unit acuity and identified clusters (i.e., groups) of pediatric nurses according to their compassion experience profiles.

A cross-sectional, comparative research design was adopted. Using convenience sampling, nurses working in acute care pediatric units and Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) from two Jordanian hospitals were invited to complete the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL), which consists of the compassion satisfaction, burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) subscales. Independent-samples t-tests and hierarchical and k-means cluster analyses were conducted.

One hundred and forty-six nurses were recruited. The ProQOL subscale scores demonstrated moderate levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and STS. No significant differences were observed among nurses, based on admission unit acuity, in the ProQOL subscales. However, the cluster analyses identified two clusters of nurses: one with higher compassion fatigue and another with lower compassion fatigue experiences.

Our findings suggest that pediatric nurses could be classified into groups with higher or lower levels of compassion fatigue. This resulting clustering of pediatric nurses, based on their compassion experience, seems to be independent of their sociodemographic characteristics.

Compassion fatigue is evident among pediatric nurses in clinical settings with varying client acuities. Routine screening and interventions for compassion fatigue are urgently needed to curb its negative clinical and administrative effects.