Reducing Emergency Nurse Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue resulting from a poor nurse-patient relationship is a common problem that develops in Emergency Department (ED) nurses (RNs) due to the often stressful, unpredictable, and potentially violent environment that exists within the ED. This creates psychological stress for ED RNs resulting in adverse patient outcomes due to depersonalization and disengagement of the RN in the clinical setting. Studies have shown that a positive nurse-patient relationship helps to combat compassion fatigue and its negative effects. Unfortunately, this can be difficult to achieve in the chaotic environment and limited timeframe the ED permits. This grant proposal intends to assess how a meet-and-greet socializing event where patients share their ED experiences and feedback (independent variable) with ED RNs affects RN compassion fatigue levels (dependent variable). Compassion fatigue among the RNs will be measured at six different intervals over a two year period using the ProQOL Version 5 survey. This study will contribute to the body of knowledge to help decrease compassion fatigue in ED RNs and ultimately improve patient outcomes by improving ED RN engagement and clinical practice.