Context: Compassion fatigue and burnout are prevalent in many health care
professions; however, the prevalence in nurses is very high. The nurses
working in psychiatric and non-psychiatric departments are also different,
respectively. There is a need to examine psychiatric nurses' overall
professional quality of life by assessing the factors that influence compassion
satisfaction, compassion fatigue and traumatic stress. Methodology: A total of
320 nurses were recruited who completed a demographics questionnaire and
the Professional Quality of Life Survey Descriptive statistics were used to
determine the prevalence of the professional quality of life scales, including
compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue and a comparative statistical
analysis was conducted to examine the scale of professional quality of life and
demographic profile. Results: The mean compassion satisfaction score of
nurses working in psychiatric units and non-psychiatric units was 20.1 ± 13.58
and 41.8 ± 9.45. Total mean burnout score of compassion satisfaction of nurses
working in psychiatric units was 41.3 ± 13.84 and nurses working in nonpsychiatric departments had a mean burnout score of 23.7 ± 11.14. The mean
Secondary Traumatic stress score of nurses working in psychiatric units and
non-psychiatric departments was 35.7 ± 13.64 and 21.8 ± 11.62. We observed
significant difference in Professional Quality of Life in both groups of nurses.
(p < 0.01). Conclusion: Psychiatric nurses reported low compassion satisfaction,
more burnout and while other nurses had moderate compassion satisfaction
and under moderate stress. A higher risk of burnout and secondary traumatic
stress among female psychiatric nurses was identified than male psychiatric
nurses.
Keywords: Professioanl quality of life, burnout, psychiatric nurses, Emotional
Exhaustion
