Perceived social support, empathy and compassion fatigue among nurses

Abstract

The present study was aimed to identify the relationship between perceived social support, empathy and compassion fatigue among nurses. Data was collected from sample of 242 nurses including male (n=60) and female (n=182). The age range of the participants was between 20 to 50 years. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet et aI., 1998) was used to measure perceived social support. Toronto Empathy Questionnaire by Spreng et al. (2009) was used to measure empathy, and Professional Quality of Life Scale (Stamm, 2005) was used to evaluate compassion fatigue among nurses. Correlation analysis was carried out to identify the relationship between perceived social support, empathy and compassion fatigue. Results showed that perceived social support from all its sources (family, friends and significant others) is negatively associated to compassion fatigue and its subscales, which includes secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Perceived social support and its sources also showed the negative relationship with empathy whereas empathy and compassion fatigue along with its subscales are positively related to each other. Role of demographics i.e. age, gender, marital status, job experience and medical department were also explored in the study and the results show that the various medical departments of nurses significantly affect perceived social support, empathy and compassion fatigue. Results of ttest revealed significant mean differences on the study variables across gender and marital status. Multiple linear regression analysis shows that perceived social support and empathy are significant predictors of compassion fatigue. Mediation analysis illustrate that empathy mediates the relationship between perceived social support and compassion fatigue. Implications and limitations for the present study are also discussed, as this study will be helpful for further researches in future regarding the current topic.