Date of Award

Spring 5-16-2020

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Dr. Barbara McClaskey

Second Advisor

Jennifer Harris

Third Advisor

Dr. Greg Belcher

Abstract

Many have scrolled through Facebook and news stories highlighting nurses as “heroes” of the current coronavirus pandemic. Pictures of nurses in personal protective equipment while at work or clips of nurses making fun tiktok video’s celebrating recovered COVID -19 patients. Social media does not capture the sheer emotional, physical, and spiritual wear that nurses experience providing compassionate care to patients facing light threatening illness or events. Health care organizations are under pressure to control cost, increase productivity, and increase patient satisfaction scores, all while facing a pandemic crisis. This type of pressure can create inadequate staffing and increase clinical responsibilities for the nurse. An atmosphere that creates the foundation for compassion fatigue and nurse burnout. Compassion fatigue is linked to poor personal health, nursing retention and recruitment rates, and quality of patient care with increased safety and medication errors (Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, 2011). Raising awareness of Compassion Fatigue in nursing is vital to improving patient outcomes and addressing the “dying” roll of the bedside nurse.

Included in

Nursing Commons

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