Abstract
Introduction: Nursing is a relationship-cantered profession often accompanied by serious stress, affecting the quality of care and the job satisfaction of healthcare workers. This study aimed to examine the relationship between compassion fatigue and the quality of care, with a focus on the mediating role of nurse resilience at Lenjan Martyrs Hospital.
Methods: This applied descriptive research was conducted on 158 paramedics and nurses from Lenjan Martyrs Hospital in Isfahan Province in 2023. A researcher-made demographic questionnaire, the Compassion Fatigue Questionnaire (2010), Quality of Care questionnaire (1975), and Resilience Scare (2003) were used for data collection. Finally, data were analyzed using structural equation path analysis with Smart PLS software.
Results: The results confirmed a significant direct negative relationship between compassion fatigue and quality of care. However, resilience was found to be a significant mediator in this relationship. The path coefficients from compassion fatigue to resilience and from resilience to quality of care were 0.70 (P<0.05) and 0.78 (P<0.05), respectively. Ultimately, a Sobel test proved the mediating effect (Z=9.46, P<0.01), indicating that resilience mitigates the negative impact of compassion fatigue on care quality.
Conclusion: Compassion fatigue negatively impacted the quality of care provided by nurses, such that higher levels of compassion fatigue corresponded to lower quality of care. Therefore, resilience, as a mediating variable, can play a crucial role in mitigating compassion fatigue while improving patient care behaviour.