Compassion Fatigue and Coronavirus Burnout Level Among Nurses: Descriptive Research
Year 2025,
Volume: 10 Issue: 2, 120 - 128, 30.08.2025
Ayşe Uluçay Hamarat
,
Şerife Karagözoğlu
Abstract
Objective: This research aimed to conduct a cross-sectional and descriptive analysis to analyze compassion fatigue, coronavirus burnout level, and the relationship between these two variables in nurses providing care for COVID-19 patients.
Material and Methods: The study sample consisted of 342 nurses employed in a Turkish public hospital. The "Introductory Information Form," "Coronavirus Burnout Scale (CBS)," and "Compassion Fatigue-Brief Scale (CF-SS)" were used to collect the study data.
Results: In our study, it was determined that the mean score of the nurses' CBS was 28.55±7.87 (min:10; max:50), and the mean total score of the CF-SS was 60.47±23.47 (min:13; max:125). It was found that there was a positive, strong, statistically significant relationship between the mean total scores of the CBS and the CF-SS (r=0.69, p<0.001) and that the nurses' COVID-19 burnout levels increased compassion fatigue 0.693 times (p<0.001).
Conclusion: As a result, the study findings revealed that nurses potentially displayed higher COVID-19 burnout and compassion fatigue levels during the pandemic. Although the consequences of the recent COVID-19 period on humans seem to have decreased, the various COVID-19 virus strains and even novel infectious agent-caused pandemics will anticipatingly continue to impact humans globally in the near future. It is recommended in this regard to broaden the scope of pandemic research, reorganize the work environment of the nurses, and implement more practices to protect the mental health of nurses.
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