Empathy is positively associated with compassion fatigue among nurses working in neonatal and pediatric intensive care: A cross-sectional study

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BACKGROUND: This study examined the association between empathy and compassion fatigue among nurses working in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses employed in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units at three hospitals in Turkey. Sociodemographic and occupational data were collected, and participants completed the Jefferson Scale of Empathy and the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale. Pearson´s correlation and linear regression analyses were performed to examine the association between empathy, compassion fatigue, and other study variables. RESULTS: Sixty-five nurses participated in the study, representing 90.3% of the target population. Mean empathy and compassion fatigue scores were 79.77 ± 8.69 and 52.09 ± 20.44, respectively. A moderate positive correlation was observed between empathy and compassion fatigue (r = 0.484). Empathy explained 22.2% of the variance in compassion fatigue (R² = 0.222; B = 1.139; 95% CI: 0.621 - 1.657; p < 0.001). Nurses who had voluntarily chosen nursing reported significantly lower compassion fatigue scores than those who had not (49.14 ± 19.39 vs 61.93 ± 21.42; p = 0.032). Working more than 50 hours per week was associated with higher empathy scores (84.06 ± 11.58 vs 78.82 ± 6.46; p = 0.046), but not with compassion fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: Higher empathy associates with greater compassion fatigue among nurses working in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Voluntarily choosing nursing associates with lower compassion fatigue, whereas longer working hours associate with higher empathy.

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