Compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and burnout: A study of nurses in a large Texas health-care system.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout in nurses at a large nonprofit, Catholic-based health-care system in southern Texas. DESIGN AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, exploratory study using a self-report survey. The survey included a demographic questionnaire and the Professional Quality of Life Scale version 5 (ProQOL 5). It was emailed to 1000 nurses at a large health-care system in Texas, USA. Three hundred and eighteen nurses completed the survey for a response rate of 31.8%. FINDINGS: The results find low mean levels of compassion fatigue (CF) and burnout and high mean levels of compassion satisfaction (CS) among the nurses. Hours worked and nursing specialty emerged as factors in whether the nurses experienced CF or CS. The nurses with less than 10 years of experience have lower levels of CS and higher levels of burnout than those with over 10 years of experience. Finally, nurses who hold professional certification have statistically significant higher CF scores than those who do not. CONCLUSIONS: Health-care settings may need to take into consideration the number of hours worked and nursing specialty as significant factors in whether nurses experience CF or CS. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Three key elements in CF prevention are education, awareness, and self-care. Often the climate in health-care settings discourages medical professionals from practicing effective self-care. The strategies for combating burnout are linked to changing health-care systems so that nurses are supported. Hospitals may explore alternative work schedules and lower patient loads to prevent CF and burnout.

Exploring the Experience of Arab American and Arab Immigrant Women With Intimate Partner Violence.

This article describes a study resulting from of a university-community partnership. The faculty of the university and the executive director of local community agency serving the local Arab American and Arab immigrant community had a shared interest in looking at the unique experiences and needs of Arab women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). This led to a qualitative research project in which 25 Arab American women were interviewed about their experience with IPV. Contextual themes emerged related to cultural context, community response, and survival resilience. Implications for practice and direction for future research are discussed.

Enhancing Resilience in Active Duty Military Personnel.

A systematic, evidence-based training program to support active duty military personnel through building unit-level resiliency in preparation for anticipated individual times of crisis is needed. Mental health nurses and social workers in the military possess critical training and expertise in identifying and supporting individual and community resilience factors. Their knowledge of the protective aspects of resilience can and should be used to educate all active duty military personnel, ensure military leaders are knowledgeable in how best to support their units, and provide research on the effectiveness of pre-combat resilience training. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 55(2), 44-48.].

A Traumatic Brain Injury Prescreening Tool for Intimate Partner Violence Patients Using Initial Clinical Reports and Machine Learning.

Research studies have presented an unappreciated relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors and symptoms of traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Within these IPV survivors, resulting TBIs are not always identified during emergency room visits. This demonstrates a need for a prescreening tool that identifies IPV survivors who should receive TBI screening. We present a model that measures similarities to clinical reports for confirmed TBI cases to identify whether a patient should be screened for TBI. This is done through an ensemble of three supervised learning classifiers which work in two distinct feature spaces. Individual classifiers are trained on clinical reports and then used to create an ensemble that needs only one positive label to indicate a patient should be screened for TBI.

Feminist Activism and YPAR: Privileged Girls Interrupt Rape Culture.

This research focuses on a community-based project that foregrounds youth-led participatory action research with privileged youth. The youth's work involved interrogation of, and resistance strategies for, rape culture. Research findings demonstrate that youth came to see that rape culture has deep roots and disrupting it depends on naming its reality within their lives and its systemic foundations. Building on these emergent understandings, the youth took steps to educate their community about rape culture and gender-based violence, and the consequences of leaving it unexamined. They also created strategies to transform rape culture and facilitate social change within their own community.

Shelter and service receipt for victims of domestic violence in Illinois.

There is little empirical research about the services victims of violence in shelters receive and when, yet such information would increase our understanding of their unmet service needs especially after they leave shelter. This article utilizes data from a randomly selected sample of individuals in shelter to examine their service trajectories. Results indicate that most individuals receive service while in shelter. Individual counseling is likely to continue after shelter, but group counseling, employment, and educational assistance tend to end once shelter is over. The policy and practice implications of these results are discussed.