Professional quality of life among psychiatric and non- psychiatric nurses in Jeddah

Context: Compassion fatigue and burnout are prevalent in many health care professions; however, the prevalence in nurses is very high. The nurses working in psychiatric and non-psychiatric departments are also different, respectively. There is a need to examine psychiatric nurses' overall professional quality of life by assessing the factors that influence compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and traumatic stress. Methodology: A total of 320 nurses were recruited who completed a demographics questionnaire and the Professional Quality of Life Survey Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence of the professional quality of life scales, including compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue and a comparative statistical analysis was conducted to examine the scale of professional quality of life and demographic profile. Results: The mean compassion satisfaction score of nurses working in psychiatric units and non-psychiatric units was 20.1 +/- 13.58 and 41.8 +/- 9.45. Total mean burnout score of compassion satisfaction of nurses working in psychiatric units was 41.3 +/- 13.84 and nurses working in non -psychiatric departments had a mean burnout score of 23.7 +/- 11.14. The mean Secondary Traumatic stress score of nurses working in psychiatric units and non-psychiatric departments was 35.7 +/- 13.64 and 21.8 +/- 11.62. We observed significant difference in Professional Quality of Life in both groups of nurses. (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Psychiatric nurses reported low compassion satisfaction, more burnout and while other nurses had moderate compassion satisfaction and under moderate stress. A higher risk of burnout and secondary traumatic stress among female psychiatric nurses was identified than male psychiatric nurses.