IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0329270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of demographic factors and personality traits on nurse compassion fatigue: A cross-sectional analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Miao Zhao
  • Min Xie

Abstract

Background: Compassion fatigue significantly impacts nurses’ work efficiency, care quality, and overall well-being. Consequently, the phenomenon of compassion fatigue among nurses has garnered considerable attention. Research from abroad indicates that demographic factors and the Big Five personality traits are closely related to the burnout dimension of compassion fatigue. This insight opens new avenues for studying compassion fatigue in nurses. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the current state of compassion fatigue among nurses and its influencing factors. Furthermore, it seeks to explore the correlation between compassion fatigue and personality traits, providing valuable references for alleviating compassion fatigue among nurses. Methods: A survey using general information, the Chinese Compassion Fatigue Short Scale, and the brief version of the Chinese Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory was conducted on 332 nurses from a major tertiary hospital. Results: The total score for nurse compassion fatigue was 51.83(SD=22.02). Factors such as years of service, professional title, monthly income, and department were identified as influencing compassion fatigue. The total score for compassion fatigue exhibited a negative correlation with extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, while it showed a positive correlation with neuroticism. The Big Five personality traits accounted for 47.9%, 45.2%, and 50.2% of the variance in secondary trauma, burnout, and the overall compassion fatigue score, respectively. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Neuroticism and agreeableness are primary predictors of nurses’ compassion fatigue. Nursing managers can implement targeted measures to alleviate compassion fatigue based on the identified influencing factors and the predictive role of the Big Five personality traits.

Suggested Citation

  • Miao Zhao & Min Xie, 2025. "The impact of demographic factors and personality traits on nurse compassion fatigue: A cross-sectional analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(7), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0329270
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329270
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329270
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329270&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0329270?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0329270. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.