Correlation between moral distress and compassion fatigue in the emergency department nurses: A cross-sectional study from Ardabil Province, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Nurses working in the emergency department increasingly face moral distress due to the nature of their profession, negatively affecting their love and compassion toward the patient. Therefore, this study sought to determine the correlation between moral distress and compassion fatigue in the nurses of the emergency departments of the hospitals in Ardabil.

Materials and methods: The current cross-sectional (descriptive correlational) study was conducted using consensus sampling. The study population comprised all nurses working in the emergency departments of hospitals in Ardabil in 2022. Data were gathered using two standard questionnaires, comprising compassion fatigue by Figley (2002) and moral distress by Hamric et al. (2012). The data were analysed using SPSS-20 software and descriptive and inferential statistics, including independent T-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and one-way ANOVA.

Results: Moral distress was higher than average in governmental hospitals (2.12±0.58) and below average in private and social security hospitals (1.72±0.68). Besides, the nurses' compassion fatigue was lower than average in all studied hospitals (2.17±0.43). There was also a significant positive correlation equal to 0.29 between moral distress and compassion fatigue in emergency department nurses (P<0.01).

Conclusion: According to the results, the higher the level of moral distress, the greater the compassion fatigue. The level of moral distress and its relationship with compassion fatigue reflects the impact of conditions causing moral distress on the quality of care and the necessity to prevent such conditions by providing appropriate solutions. Informing nurses about moral distress and its consequences and providing periodic counseling can contribute to its identification and control.