Secondary Traumatic Stress and Compassion Satisfaction among Inpatient Ward Nurses: A Correlational Study

Background: Compassion satisfaction, a positive feeling a nurse experiences after helping someone, affects the nursing care quality and service. Nurses unable to control their empathy or sympathy when caring for patients may experience negative emotions, resulting in secondary traumatic stress. These conditions can affect nurses' professional quality of life and decrease their sense of compassion and satisfaction. This study aimed to determine the relationship between secondary traumatic stress and compassion satisfaction in inpatient nurses at the Central Aceh General Hospital.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted for two weeks in December 2022 at the Central Aceh General Hospital. The research sample was 154 inpatient nurses selected using a proportional random sampling technique. Respondents' demographic data includes age, gender, education level, income level, and years of service.

Results: Most of the respondents were 26-35 years old (81.2%), female (66.9%), graduated as a nurse (51.9%), had low income (89.6%), and had short working years (64.3%). The Chi-square test revealed a relationship between nurses' compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress (p=0.008).

Conclusion: It can be concluded that secondary traumatic stress affects nurses' compassion satisfaction, which in turn influences their professional quality of life.