The relationships among alarm fatigue, compassion fatigue, burnout and compassion satisfaction in critical care and step-down nurses

Abstract

Aims and objectives: The study purpose was to investigate if compassion fatigue, burnout, compassion satisfaction and personal characteristics are associated with alarm fatigue and predict alarm fatigue in critical care nurses.

Background: The phenomena of alarm fatigue, compassion fatigue and burnout place nurses, patients and the healthcare environment in potentially harmful situations and represent the opposite of the foundation of caring and compassion satisfaction in nursing. It has been noted that healthcare organisations should address alarm fatigue as mandated by the Joint Commission based on the higher number of alarms sounding in the critical care environment and based on factors influencing nurses to respond to the alarm.

Design: This was a correlational and predictive quantitative study.

Methods: The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist for research reporting of observational studies was followed in this study. Nurses working in the step-down and intensive care units from three hospitals in a selected healthcare network in Pennsylvania were recruited using convenience sampling (n = 52). Observation, the ProQOL and demographic surveys were used to collect data on alarm fatigue, compassion fatigue, burnout, compassion satisfaction and personal characteristics of critical care nurses. Methods of data analyses included descriptive statistics, chi-square, Spearman's ρ and binary logistic regression.

Results: The study results revealed that the participating critical care nurses showed alarm fatigue, were at risk for compassion fatigue and were near risk for burnout.

Conclusions: This study illuminated the significant relationships among alarm fatigue and the characteristics of gender, nursing unit, nurse-to-patient ratio and age in critical care nurses.

Relevance to clinical practice: The study results can help critical care nurses take the initiative to not only help themselves prevent or overcome alarm fatigue, compassion fatigue and burnout, but also help their coworkers in this area.

Keywords: alarm fatigue; burnout; compassion fatigue; compassion satisfaction; critical care; step-down.