• Tara L Sacco, Susan M Ciurzynski, Megan Elizabeth Harvey, and Gail L Ingersoll.
• Tara L. Sacco is a visiting assistant professor at St John Fisher College, Wegmans School of Nursing, and a clinical nurse specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.Susan M. Ciurzynski is a senior advanced practice registered nurse, Golisano Children's Hospital, University of Rochester Medical Center, and an associate professor of clinical nursing at the University of Rochester School of Nursing.Megan Elizabeth Harvey is a registered nurse II at the burn and pediatric intensive care unit at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington. At the time of this project she was a nurse leader for the Kessler Family Burn/Trauma Intensive Care Unit at the University of Rochester Medical Center.Gail L. Ingersoll (deceased) was the director of the Clinical Nursing Research Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, at the time of this project. tsacco@sjfc.edu.
• Crit Care Nurse. 2015 Aug 1; 35 (4): 32-43; quiz 1p following 43.

BackgroundAlthough critical care nurses gain satisfaction from providing compassionate care to patients and patients' families, the nurses are also at risk for fatigue. The balance between satisfaction and fatigue is considered professional quality of life.ObjectivesTo establish the prevalence of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue in adult, pediatric, and neonatal critical care nurses and to describe potential contributing demographic, unit, and organizational characteristics.MethodsIn a cross-sectional design, nurses were surveyed by using a demographic questionnaire and the Professional Quality of Life Scale to measure levels of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction.ResultsNurses (n = 221) reported significant differences in compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue on the basis of sex, age, educational level, unit, acuity, change in nursing management, and major systems change.ConclusionsUnderstanding the elements of professional quality of life can have a positive effect on work environment. The relationship between professional quality of life and the standards for a healthy work environment requires further investigation. Once this relationship is fully understood, interventions to improve this balance can be developed and tested.©2015 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

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