Preventing Compassion Fatigue among Palliative Care Nurses

This research proposal aims to identify the best approaches that can be used to prevent compassion fatigue among nurses working in palliative care units and thereby mitigate the impact of repeated exposure to secondary traumatic stress and patient suffering.

Running head: RESEARCH ESSAY
Research essay
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1
RESEARCH ESSAY
Introduction:
Compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress (STS) can be understood as a
condition which results in a reduction in the sense of compassion among people over time.
This phenomenon is frequently seen among workers who are involved in the care of
individuals who have experienced disasters, trauma or illness such as healthcare workers,
relief workers, child protection workers as well as firefighters, rescue workers, social support
workers, journalists, paramedics and emergency medical teams (Hinderer et al., 2014).
Compassion fatigue can occur due to repeated exposure to secondary traumatic stress which
erodes their ability to show compassion to others can develop symptoms such as
hopelessness, reduced pleasure from work, anxiety, sleeplessness and depression.
Compassion fatigue can adversely affect the performance and productivity of care workers;
reduce their job satisfaction and ability to focus on work as well as having negative
psychological impact on them.
Specific Aims:
The aim of this study is to identify the best approaches that can be used to prevent
compassion fatigue among nurses working in palliative care units and thereby mitigate the
impact of repeated exposure to secondary traumatic stress and patient suffering. The study
therefore aims to explore strategies that can be used to protect the mental health as well as
productivity of palliative care nurses from repeated exposure to patient suffering.
Background and Significance:
Nurses working in Palliative care are regularly exposed to suffering of the patients
while providing the patients an end of life care and supporting the patient’s family as well as

2
RESEARCH ESSAY
the patients to make end of life decisions for the patient, which can be emotionally stressful
for the nurses (Sheppard, 2015). In most cases, the patients, their distress and their
challenging behavior often complicate the process of nursing care delivery for the nurses and
leads to compassion fatigue, which in turn can lead to severe burnout for the nurses. The
detrimental impact of the burnout can reflect on the nursing competencies of the nurses, and
can deteriorate their care approach and tenacity (Hinderer et al., 2014). This research
proposal will attempt to discover best practice standards and strategies that can help nurses
overcome the impact of compassion fatigue and stress and help them retain a healthy
psychosocial stress.
Preliminary Data:
The research design chosen for the research study is qualitative and involving
secondary data. The existing evidence literature is going to be searched thoroughly and the
most relevant and adequate data findings will be analyzed and illustrated into themes (Corbin,
Strauss & Strauss, 2014).
Experimental Design and Methods:
As mentioned above the experimental design which has been chosen for the research
study is qualitative research design, which will use secondary data scoping search for
conducting the study. The database that is going to be used is CINAHL, and the research
question will be broken down to research phrases which then will be searched using Boolean
operators ‘AND’ and ‘OR’. The research studies that had been published 2014 onwards, in
English, were peer reviewed and involving human subjects will be selected in the study
(Marshall & Rossman, 2014). Any research study not following this research criteria or
having inaccurate or irrelevant content will be excluded. The included studies will be

3
RESEARCH ESSAY
compared and contrasted and on the basis of similar findings will be segregated into separate
themes which then will be illustrated in detail.

4
RESEARCH ESSAY
References:
Corbin, J., Strauss, A., & Strauss, A. L. (2014). Basics of qualitative research. sage.
Hinderer, K. A., VonRueden, K. T., Friedmann, E., McQuillan, K. A., Gilmore, R., Kramer,
B., & Murray, M. (2014). Burnout, compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and
secondary traumatic stress in trauma nurses. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 21(4), 160-
169.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2014). Designing qualitative research. Sage publications.
Sheppard, K. (2015). Compassion fatigue among registered nurses: Connecting theory and
research. Applied Nursing Research, 28(1), 57-59.