Abstract

Objectives: Nurses experience compassion fatigue as a result of the chronic stress they encounter in their working life. Compassion fatigue has been defined as the stress, pain, distress, and cost of care that comes with trying to help someone who has been traumatized. One of the factors that determine the stress levels and coping processes of individuals is personality. The ability of nurses to manage stress arising from working conditions, and therefore the resulting compassion fatigue, should be evaluated in terms of personality traits. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of Five Factor Personality Traits on compassion fatigue in nurses.

Method: The research is a cross-sectional and descriptive study. Questionnaire method was used. The research population consists of nurses serving in Turkey, and the sample consists of 412 people.

Results: 91.7% of the participants were women, 56.8% were married, 46.1% had no children, 41.7% were 30 years old and under, 45.6% had a bachelor’s degree, % It was found that 68.4% preferred the nursing profession willingly, 29.6% had a working time of 5 years or less, 56.8% had an income of 7500 TL or more, and 76.2% worked in public hospitals. The reliability of the study was found to be 0.831. The mean of compassion fatigue was found to be 64.81. A negative correlation was found between compassion fatigue and extraversion and openness to experience variables (r= -247, r= -160). A positive correlation was found between compassion fatigue and the variables of responsibility and neuroticism (r=106, r=388).

Conclusion: In our study, compassion fatigue was found to be above the moderate level in nurses. As a result of the study, extraversion and openness to experience personality traits have a negative effect on compassion fatigue. Responsibility and neuroticism personality traits have a positive effect on compassion fatigue.