Compassion fatigue and its association with workplace empowerment in acute care settings

Compassion fatigue (CF) has been found to influence nursing care providers (NCP) in a variety of specialized areas; however, general medicine unit settings are often overlooked. A potential way to mitigate CF could be through the use of organizational empowerment structures. 117 nursing care providers (NCP) and health care attendants (HCAs) who provided direct patient care in the hospital medical unit context were surveyed using a cross-sectional survey design. Five units from four hospitals of a large, urban health authority in British Columbia participated. Findings revealed that 55% of the sample reported moderate to severe levels of CF. Accessibility to resources was the only organizational empowerment structure that explained variability in the sample's experience of CF (p < 0.01). In addition, the variance of CF was partially explained by the participants' highest level of education and marital status (p < 0.05). Further investigation is needed to further assess CF mitigation.