Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
6-24-2025
First Advisor
Lisa Drake
Second Advisor
Brittany Marshall
Abstract
Compassion fatigue is defined as the physical and mental exhaustion and emotional withdrawal experienced by those who care for sick or traumatized people over an extended period. Without proactive intervention, compassion fatigue will continue to affect healthcare workers, leading to dissatisfaction in the workplace. Mentorship is an intervention that has been identified for improving the incidence of compassion fatigue. This quality improvement project implemented and evaluated a mentorship program for critical care nurses in a 227-bed acute care facility that has a 36-bed intensive care unit. The project evaluated the impact of weekly mentoring sessions on compassion fatigue in critical care nurses over an eight-week period. Participants in the project were nurses with less than one year of critical care experiences (mentees), or experienced critical care nurses chosen as mentors. The Advisory Board’s compassion fatigue assessment tool was used for mentors and mentees to self-assess their level of compassion fatigue before and after the mentoring sessions were implemented and completed. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and a paired sample t – test for the overall compassion fatigue score. Although the results of the t-test were not statistically significant (p-0.351), there were many learnings related to compassion fatigue in the intensive care unit where the participants are employed. Findings indicate a need for further investigation into the reasons for the survey results and should guide leadership as they continue to seek ways to support nurses and to cultivate a healthy critical care environment.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Livengood, Susan, "Quality Improvement Project Impact of Weekly Mentorship on Compassion Fatigue in Critical Care Nurses" (2025). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 177.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/177
