Podium Presentation: Levels of Compassion Satisfaction among Prescribers, Nursing Staff, and Chaplains

Background: Patient care delivered in hospitals is fast-paced, complex, and ever-changing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses, prescribers, and chaplains provided front-line, whole-person care in hospital settings to patients who had decreased or no access to visitors without the use of technology while facing acute illness and difficult prognoses. During the pandemic, nurses and physicians reported increased fatigue and stress in scientific literature. Poor emotional well-being may lead to decreased compassion satisfaction. Increased compassion satisfaction may mitigate adverse occupational and patient-centered outcomes, support fewer missed days at work, lead to higher staff satisfaction, and raise patient satisfaction scores. Literature reports that levels of compassion satisfaction differed among nurses and physicians surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with nurses reporting slightly higher levels. Yet, whether differences in perceived compassion satisfaction exist between hospital-based nursing staff (clinical and non-clinical Registered Nurses), providers (doctors, nurse practitioners, or physician’s assistants), and chaplains following the COVID-19 omicron wave are unclear. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure self-reported compassion satisfaction (CS) among prescribers, nursing staff, and chaplains after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Caregivers providing patient care across seven states and 30 hospitals voluntarily completed surveys from February 2022 through April 2022. Survey items included demographics (role, years in role, specialty) and the compassion satisfaction subscale of the Professional Quality of Life survey. Comparisons were made between role types of prescribers, nursing staff, and chaplains. Prescribers were considered caregivers with the scope to prescribe treatments to patients in an inpatient hospital setting (Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, and Physician Assistants). Nursing staff included anyone with a Registered Nursing license, providing either direct or indirect patient care. Hospital chaplains are trained professionals who provide spiritual support to inpatients, family, and their support persons across the continuum of care. Scores on the Compassion Satisfaction (CS) subscale (ranging from 10-50 with higher numbers representing more CS) were considered the outcome. Descriptive statistics were obtained for the sample. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was tabulated to detect differences in average stress levels by frequency of interactions since the pandemic. All analyses were conducted in Excel, with p ≤ .05 considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 1,021 caregivers met eligibility and had data included in analysis. Of these, n=54 represent chaplains, n=113 licensed prescribers, and n=854 Registered Nurses. In our study, nurses and prescribers reported significantly lower mean CS scores (m=38.9, m=38.5, respectively) compared to chaplains (m=42.3, F2, 1018 =6.8, p=0.001). Conclusion: Compassion satisfaction represents importance to caregivers and chaplains in hospital settings with a possible relationship to delivery of safer patient care. Future research is required to generalize findings and associations between CS and each interprofessional healthcare role individually and collectively. Implications for practice: Knowledge of levels of CS across interdisciplinary teams may bring to light inequalities of compassion from provider to provider. More research is needed to make generalized assumptions based on these limited findings. References: Cho, H., & Steege, L. M. (2021). Nurse Fatigue and Nurse, Patient Safety, and Organizational Outcomes: A Systematic Review. 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