Relationship Between Compassion Fatigue and Parental Stress in Nurses

The exhausting nature of the nursing profession causes various negative outcomes among nurses - most notably, compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is the emotional exhaustion that results from prolonged exposure to  traumatic stress. Beyond the workplace, nurses also face additional challenges at home as caregivers to their young children. Parenting demands can be especially intense when these children are young and heavily dependent on their parents. When these demands severely overwhelm a person’s available resources, they experience parental stress. Thus, for nurses who are parents of young children, the overlap between work and personal life could potentially cause compassion fatigue and parental stress to negatively influence each other. While there is a significant dearth of literature about the relationship between compassion fatigue and parental stress, a recent qualitative study suggests compassion fatigue may predict child neglect and maltreatment. To create holistic interventions to manage compassion fatigue, it is essential to understand the impact of factors beyond the workplace, and address these stressors as well. As such, this paper aims to explore the correlation between compassion fatigue and parental stress among nurses with young children.