Determining Conscience Perception and Compassion Fatigue among the Nurses Who Worked At Pandemic Clinics: Sample of City Hospital

Abstract

This study was done to determine the level of conscience perception and compassion fatigue among the nurses who worked at pandemic clinics. This study was conducted with 172 nurses who worked at a pandemic clinic of a city hospital. To collect the data; “personal information request form”, “perceptions of conscience questionnaire”, and “compassion fatigue-short scale” were employed. To analyze the data; percentage, averages, t test, one way variance and correlation analysis were used. 70.9% of the nurses were female, 79.1% of them had undergraduate degrees, 49.4% of them were married, 46.5% of them had children and 78.5% had a clear conscience during the time that they worked at pandemic clinics. The participating nurses received 65.04±10.10 in perceptions of conscience questionnaire and 72.34±22.15 in compassion fatigue-short scale. Gender and the school from which the participants graduated affected perceptions of conscience while age, the school from which the participants graduated, length of professional working, the tasks in the unit and the negative experiences affected compassion fatigue. In the study; it was identified that nurses’ perceptions of conscience were high whereas their compassion fatigue was moderate. It was found that no significant correlation was found between nurses’ nurses’ perceptions of conscience and their compassion fatigue. It may be recommended that nurses be taught coping skills against extraordinary situations like COVID-19.