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Working in the stressful environment of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is an emotionally charged challenge that might affect the emotional stability of medical staff. The quality of care for ICU patients and their relatives might be threatened through long-term absenteeism or a brain and skill drain if the healthcare professionals leave their jobs prematurely in order to preserve their own health. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the literature related to emotional distress among healthcare professionals in the ICU, with an emphasis on the prevalence of burnout and compassion fatigue and the available preventive strategies. A systematic literature review was conducted, using Embase, Medline OvidSP, Cinahl, Web-of-science, PsychINFO, PubMed publisher, Cochrane and Google Scholar for articles published between 1992 and June, 2014. Studies reporting the prevalence of burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma in ICU healthcare professionals were included, as well as related intervention studies. Forty of the 1623 identified publications, which included 14,770 respondents, met the selection criteria. Two studies reported the prevalence of compassion fatigue as 7.3% and 40%; five studies described the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress ranging from 0% to 38.5%. The reported prevalence of burnout in the ICU varied from 0% to 70.1%. A wide range of intervention strategies emerged from the recent literature search, such as different intensivist work schedules, educational programs on coping with emotional distress, improving communication skills, and relaxation methods. The true prevalence of burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma in ICU healthcare professionals remains open for discussion. A thorough exploration of emotional distress in relation to communication skills, ethical rounds, and mindfulness might provide an appropriate starting point for the development of further preventive strategies.

Workplace bullying experienced by clinical nurses is associated with burnout, a factor that threatens the quality of nursing care and patient safety. This study examined the association of workplace bullying with burnout, professional quality of life, and turnover intention among clinical nurses. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Data were collected from 324 nurses and were analyzed using t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple regression. Controlling for the general characteristics of the participants, workplace bullying had a significant association with emotional exhaustion (B = 0.29, p < 0.01) and depersonalization (B = 0.15, p < 0.01) among the subdomains of burnout, compassion fatigue among the components of professional quality of life (B = 0.15, p < 0.01), and turnover intention (B = 0.05, p < 0.01). Thus, preventing workplace bullying is important to reduce clinical nurses' burnout and turnover. The role of nursing leadership is crucial to develop interventions that reduce workplace bullying and successfully create a professional, nurturing, and supportive work culture.

The detrimental impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare providers’ psychological health and well-being continue to affect their professional roles and activities, leading to compassion fatigue. The purpose of this review was to identify and summarize published literature on compassion fatigue among healthcare providers and its impact on patient care. Six databases were searched: MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, for studies on compassion fatigue in healthcare providers, published in English from the peak of the pandemic in 2020 to 2023. To expand the search, reference lists of included studies were hand searched to locate additional relevant studies. The studies primarily focused on nurses, physicians, and other allied health professionals. This scoping review was registered on Open Science Framework (OSF), using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) extension to scoping review. From 11,715 search results, 24 met the inclusion criteria. Findings are presented using four themes: prevalence of compassion fatigue; antecedents of compassion fatigue; consequences of compassion fatigue; and interventions to address compassion fatigue. The potential antecedents of compassion fatigue are grouped under individual-, organization-, and systems-level factors. Our findings suggest that healthcare providers differ in risk for developing compassion fatigue in a country-dependent manner. Interventions such as increasing available personnel helped to minimize the occurrence of compassion fatigue. This scoping review offers important insight on the common causes and potential risks for compassion fatigue among healthcare providers and identifies potential strategies to support healthcare providers’ psychological health and well-being. Highlights • What do we already know about this topic? The elevated and persistent mental stress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic predisposed healthcare providers (HCP) to various psychological conditions such as compassion fatigue. Declines in health providers’ mental health has been observed to negatively impact their professional performance and the quality of patient care. • How does your research contribute to the field? This review provides an overview of the prevalence of compassion fatigue among HCPs across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main risk factors for compassion fatigue include younger age, female sex, being either a physician or a nurse, high workload, extensive work hours, and limited access to personal protective equipment (PPE). Negative behavioral intention towards patients has been identified to be a consequence of compassion fatigue. Interventions such as the provision of emotional support, increased monitoring for conditions such as stress and burnout, and increasing available personnel helped to minimize the occurrence of compassion fatigue. • What are your research’s implications towards theory, practice, or policy? While the public health emergency associated with the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, the impact on human health resources persists. The findings of this review can inform policy decisions and implementation of evidence-based strategies to prevent, manage, and lessen the negative effects of compassion fatigue on HCPs and its subsequent impacts on patient care.

Healthcare professionals’ wellbeing can be adversely affected by the intense demands of, and the secondary traumatic stress associated with, their job. Self-compassion is associated with positive wellbeing outcomes across a variety of workforce populations and is potentially an important skill for healthcare workers, as it offers a way of meeting one’s own distress with kindness and understanding. This systematic review aimed to synthesise and evaluate the utility of self-compassion interventions in reducing secondary traumatic stress in a healthcare worker population. Eligible articles were identified from research databases, including ProQuest, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and EBSCO. The quality of non-randomised and randomised trials was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. The literature search yielded 234 titles, from which 6 studies met the inclusion criteria. Four studies reported promising effects of self-compassion training for secondary traumatic stress in a healthcare population, although these did not use controls. The methodological quality of these studies was medium. This highlights a research gap in this area. Three of these four studies recruited workers from Western countries and one recruited from a non-Western country. The Professional Quality of Life Scale was used to evaluate secondary traumatic stress in all studies. The findings show preliminary evidence that self-compassion training may improve secondary traumatic stress in healthcare professional populations; however, there is a need for greater methodological quality in this field and controlled trials. The findings also show that the majority of research was conducted in Western countries. Future research should focus on a broader range of geographical locations to include non-Western countries.

Medical personnel is an occupational group that is especially prone to secondary traumatic stress. The factors conditioning its occurrence include organizational and work-related factors, as well as personal features and traits. The aim of this study was to determine Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) indicators in a group of medical personnel, considering occupational load, job satisfaction, social support, and cognitive processing of trauma. Results obtained from 419 medical professionals, paramedics and nurses, were analyzed. The age of study participants ranged from 19 to 65 (M = 39.60, SD = 11.03). A questionnaire developed for this research including questions about occupational indicators as well as four standard evaluation tools: Secondary Traumatic Stress Inventory, Job Satisfaction Scale, Social Support Scale which measures four support sources (supervisors, coworkers, family, friends) and Cognitive Processing of Trauma Scale which allows to evaluate cognitive coping strategies (positive cognitive restructuring, downward comparison, resolution/acceptance, denial, regret) were used in the study. The results showed that the main predictor of STS symptoms in the studied group of medical personnel is job satisfaction. Two cognitive strategies also turned out to be predictors of STS, that is regret (positive relation) and resolution/acceptance (negative relation). The contribution of other analyzed variables, i.e., denial, workload and social support to explaining the dependent variable is rather small. Paramedics and nurses are at the high risk of indirect traumatic exposure and thus may be more prone to secondary traumatic stress symptoms development. It is important to include the medical personnel in the actions aiming at prevention and reduction of STS symptoms.

The mental health of physicians has been neglected for a long time. This study investigated the association between Mental Health, Self-Compassion, and Compassion Fatigue in physicians. This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted among 315 physicians. In the study, a Sociodemographic Data Form, Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form, Compassion Fatigue Scale-Short Form, and Patient Health Questionnaire-4 were applied to the participants. 58.7% of the participants are between 25 and 35 years old and 51.4% are female. The mean scores of SC-SF and CF-SF were 33.2 (SD = 8.49) and 61.8 (SD = 26.2), respectively. The physicians had poor mental health, with 36.8% reporting anxiety and 41.9% reporting depression. A negative and moderate-level significant relationship was found between SC-SF and CF-SF (R = − 0.596,  p  < 0.001). Physicians should receive expert support and regular training on specific topics such as awareness-based self-compassion methods, recognizing and managing psychiatric symptoms, and coping with compassion fatigue and stress. The positive mental health of physicians, who hold a leading position in healthcare services, will have a favourable impact on the health system and public health.

Mental health problems among nurses are prevalent and harmful. Nurses worldwide have encountered serious mental health issues. Although fatigue has been proven to lead to substance abuse or addictive behaviors (such as internet addiction), there is a lack of sufficient data on whether there is a connection with compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a common mental health problem in helping professions. Anxiety and inhibitory control have been demonstrated to be associated with internet addiction, but the mediating role between them in the state of compassion fatigue remains to be further explored. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the chain—mediating effect of anxiety and inhibitory control between compassion fatigue and internet addiction in the nurse population. From July to August 2024, a questionnaire survey was conducted using a convenience sampling method in 7 hospitals in Hunan Province, China. A total of 516 front—line clinical nurses were included, among whom 17 were male and 499 were female. Subjective data on compassion fatigue, internet addiction, anxiety, and inhibitory control were collected and analyzed. SPSS 26.0 and its PROCESS macro—plugin were used for data analysis. After controlling for age and gender, compassion fatigue was found to be a significant predictor of internet addiction ( β  = 0.40, P  < 0.001). However, when anxiety and inhibitory control were added, the prediction of compassion fatigue on internet addiction in the nurse population remained significant ( β  = 0.18, P  < 0.001). Eventually, the research results show that compassion fatigue can predict internet addiction through anxiety and inhibitory control. It is recommended that nursing managers provide appropriate emotional interventions for nurses with compassion fatigue or adjust the shift—scheduling and leave system to prevent the occurrence of internet addiction.

Background Workplace violence is a global public health issue and a major occupational hazard cross borders and environments. Nurses are the primary victims of workplace violence due to their frontline roles and continuous interactions. Objective The present study aimed to investigate the status of workplace violence, turnover intention, compassion fatigue, and psychological resilience among Chinese nurses, and explore the mediating role of compassion fatigue and the moderating role of psychological resilience on relationship between workplace violence and turnover intention among Chinese nurses. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted among a convenience sample of clinical registered nurses from public hospitals in Changsha, Hunan, China. Data was collected through an online questionnaire, which included a demographic information form, the Workplace Violence Scale (WVS), the Turnover Intention Questionnaire (TIQ), the Compassion Fatigue Scale (CF-CN), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were employed to examine the relationships among the main variables. A moderated mediation analysis was further conducted using the PROCESS macro for SPSS (Model 4 and Model 8) to examine the mediating role of compassion fatigue and the moderating role of psychological resilience. Result The present survey recruited a convenience sample of 1,141 clinical registered nurses, who reported experiencing multiple types of workplace violence during the past year. Correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations between workplace violence and turnover intention ( r  = 0.466, P  < 0.01) as well as compassion fatigue ( r  = 0.452, P  < 0.01), while negative correlation between workplace violence and psychological resilience ( r =-0.414, P  < 0.01). Moderated mediation analysis revealed that compassion fatigue mediated, while psychological resilience moderated, the positive relationship between workplace violence and turnover intention (all P  < 0.05). Conclusion This study underscores the mediating effect of compassion fatigue and the moderating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between workplace violence and turnover intention among Chinese nurses. Future efforts should be undertaken to develop effective preventive measures and intervention strategies at individual, organizational, and national levels to mitigate workplace violence and foster supportive work environment. Clinical trial number Not applicable.

As characterized by repeated exposure of others’ trauma, vicarious traumatization is a common negative psychological reaction during the COVID-19 pandemic and plays a crucial role in the development of general mental distress. This study aims to identify functional connectome that encodes individual variations of pandemic-related vicarious traumatization and reveal the underlying brain-vicarious traumatization mechanism in predicting general distress. The eligible subjects were 105 general university students (60 females, aged from 19 to 27 years) undergoing brain MRI scanning and baseline behavioral tests (October 2019 to January 2020), whom were re-contacted for COVID-related vicarious traumatization measurement (February to April 2020) and follow-up general distress evaluation (March to April 2021). We applied a connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) approach to identify the functional connectome supporting vicarious traumatization based on a 268-region-parcellation assigned to network memberships. The CPM analyses showed that only the negative network model stably predicted individuals’ vicarious traumatization scores (q2 = -0.18, MSE = 617, r [predicted, actual] = 0.18, p = 0.024), with the contributing functional connectivity primarily distributed in the fronto-parietal, default mode, medial frontal, salience, and motor network. Furthermore, mediation analysis revealed that vicarious traumatization mediated the influence of brain functional connectome on general distress. Importantly, our results were independent of baseline family socioeconomic status, other stressful life events and general mental health as well as age, sex and head motion. Our study is the first to provide evidence for the functional neural markers of vicarious traumatization and reveal an underlying neuropsychological pathway to predict distress symptoms in which brain functional connectome affects general distress via vicarious traumatization.

This longitudinal research examined the directions of the relationships between job burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) among human services workers. In particular, using cross-lagged panel design, we investigated whether job burnout predicts STS at 6-month follow up or whether the level of STS symptoms explains job burnout at 6-month follow-up. Participants in Study 1 were behavioral or mental healthcare providers (N = 135) working with U.S. military personnel suffering from trauma. Participants in Study 2 were healthcare providers, social workers, and other human services professions (N = 194) providing various types of services for civilian trauma survivors in Poland. The cross-lagged analyses showed consistent results for both longitudinal studies; job burnout measured at Time 1 led to STS at Time 2, but STS assessed at Time 1 did not lead to job burnout at Time 2. These results contribute to a discussion on the origins of STS and job burnout among human services personnel working in highly demanding context of work-related secondary exposure to traumatic events and confirm that job burnout contributes to the development of STS.