COMPASSION FATIGUE AND COMPASSION SATISFACTION IN ONCOLOGY NURSING STAFF: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Abstract
Introduction. Oncology nursing professionals’ quality of life can be in danger when working with oncology patients due to the high physical and emotional demands they are subjected to. These professionals are more likely to present compassion fatigue, a negative dimension of care delivery. For this reason, it is essential to know the protective and favorable factors, in order to create effective coping strategies that promote compassion satisfaction, a positive dimension of the nurse-atient relationship. That said, the main objective was to analyze how compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction influence the quality of life of oncology nursing staff.
Methodology. A bibliographic review was carried out with a systematic methodology of the scientific literature using the PRISMA statement as a reference. The search was carried out in the PubMed, Google scholar, Medline and Scielo databases.
Results and discussion. 14 articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected. In general, all studies reported low-average levels of compassion fatigue and highaverage levels of compassion satisfaction. In addition, they agree that there are factors, such as neuroticism, that promote the development of compassion fatigue, and others, such as resilience, that stimulate compassion satisfaction. Likewise, some studies suggested coping strategies such as mindfulness to improve oncology nursing professionals’ quality of life.
Conclusions. Oncology nursing professionals need to have the resources to deal with the physical and emotional demands of working with oncology patients. Therefore, it is essential to invest in the implementation of effective coping strategies.
