The role of emotional intelligence and empathy in compassionate nursing care

Compassionate patient relationships can be deeply rewarding, but continuous exposure to emotionally charged situations can also tax clinicians’ emotional resources and lead to exhaustion and burnout. A better understanding of factors that relate to clinicians’ ability to manage the emotional demands of the profession is needed. Hence, this study examined the relationships between emotional intelligence, empathy, and job-related compassion and burnout in 92 direct-care registered nurses in the United States. Results showed that whereas higher levels of emotional intelligence, empathy for others’ positive emotions, and empathy for others’ negative emotions were associated with greater compassion satisfaction, only higher levels of emotional intelligence and empathy for positive emotions were associated with reduced fatigue and burnout. The results have implications for clinicians as they provide foundational information to help determine appropriate strategies, supports, and solutions to reduce compassion fatigue and burnout while increasing compassion satisfaction.