Impact of Accelerated Recovery Program on Compassion Fatigue among Nurses in South India

BACKGROUND: Nurses suffer from Compassion Fatigue (CF) when exposed to chronic stress while caring for patients. Depression and anxiety disorders can develop following CF and intervention at the earliest is essential. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Accelerated Recovery Program (ARP) on CF among nurses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present experimental study was carried out with a pretest posttest design and control group among 120 nurses working in Narayana Medical College Hospital, India. The nurses selected through simple random sampling were divided into two groups: intervention and control (every 60 nurses). Data were collected using the Professional Quality of Life Scale: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Version 5 (ProQOL) (Stamm, 2010) which consists of the three subscales of Compassion Satisfaction (CS), Burnout (BO), and Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). The pretest was conducted at day 1, and posttests I, II, III, IV, and V were conducted at 5(th) week, 3(rd) month, 6(th) month, 9(th) month, and 12(th) month, respectively using ProQOL. ARP and routine care were implemented for 5 weeks in the intervention group, and routine activities were implemented in the control group. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in the ProQOL score between the intervention and control groups, which demonstrated a significant difference between the groups in terms of CS (F(1,118)= 120.10, p < 0.001), BO (F(1,118) = 123., p < 0.001), and STS (F(1,118) = 205.18, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, ARP has a significant impact on ProQOL, resulting in an improvement in CS, and a decrease in BO and STS.