Compassion levels of surgical and operating room nurses

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to determine the compassion levels of surgical and operating room nurses.METHODS: The sample of the descriptive/cross-sectional study consisted of 114 surgical and operating room nurses. Research data were collected using a personal information form and a compassion scale. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA Test were used in the analysis of the data.RESULTS: Of the nurses participating in the study, 61.4% were between the ages of 26-35, 81.6% were women and 69.3% were undergraduates. It was determined that 43.9% of the nurses worked in the operating room or surgical services for 6 to 10 years and 50% of them worked 41 to 48 hours a week. The mean score of the operating room and surgical nurses from the compassion scale was 95.01±11.55. When the compassion score averages were examined, it was seen that the compassion levels of single nurses (94.66±10.21) were significantly lower than those of married nurses (97.43±12.69) (P<0.05). Nurses with postgraduate education and 0 to 5 years of professional experience had higher levels of compassion (P<0.05). It was determined that as the professional experience of nurses increased, their compassion levels decreased (P<0.05).CONCLUSIONS: In this study, it was determined that the compassion levels of surgical nurses and operating room nurses was high. It was found that high education level, being married and short professional experience affected the compassion level positively.