Compassion fatigue in liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators: a descriptive research study

Context-Because of the nature of the helping professions, nurses are at high risk for compassion fatigue and burnout. In the past, many researchers have studied compassion fatigue and burnout in nurses. However, reports of research assessing liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators' compassion fatigue and burnout are rare. Objective-To assess liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators' levels of compassion fatigue and burnout. Design-A nonexperimental, exploratory descriptive study was conducted using the Professional Quality of Life Scale Version 5 (ProQOL-V), a 30-item self-report instrument to measure participants' level of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Setting and Participants-This study sampled 14 liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators from a large multiorgan transplant center in the Southeast region. Results-Transplant nurse coordinators had an average level of compassion satisfaction, an average level of burnout, and an average level of secondary traumatic stress. Within liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators, a statistically significant relationship was found between education levels of transplant nurse coordinators and the level of burnout, suggesting that education levels may influence burnout. (C) 2013 NATCO, The Organization for Transplant Professionals