Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Document Type

Major Paper

School

School of Nursing

Department

Nursing

Date of Original Version

2017

Abstract

Hospice nursing is an important aspect of health care. Hospice nursing is a specialized field in which patients are cared for at the end of life and an important aspect of healthcare. Because the care hospice nurses provide comes at the end of life, they are continuously exposed to death, dying, pain and suffering. Numerous studies have documented that continuous exposure to trauma, death and dying may result in compassion fatigue (CF). Compassion fatigue can lead to a physical and emotional toll on nurses resulting in low staff satisfaction , high turnover rates, and reduced quality of care. The 1 purpose of the project was to develop and implement an educational program about CF for hospice nursing staff at Care New England Visiting Nurse Association (VNA). First, a comprehensive needs assessment was conducted and then an educational intervention was developed based on those results and the review of the literature. It was hoped that as a result of the program hospice nurses' knowledge and understanding of CF, its signs and symptoms and prevention interventions that might minimize or prevent the effects of CF would be learned. Sixty-seven percent of eligible nurses (n=8) participated in the intervention. The participants were asked to complete a post program survey and evaluating the program positively and strongly agreed that they benefitted from it. All eight participants stated that there knowledge of compassion fatigue and selfcare techniques had improved.

Included in

Nursing Commons

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