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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1551381
This article is part of the Research Topic Neurological Mechanisms of Empathy for Distress View all 6 articles
The Impact of Support from Emergency Nurse Organizations on Compassion Fatigue: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital
Provisionally accepted- 1 Second People’s Hospital of Yibin, Yibin, China
- 2 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Second People’s Hospital of Yibin, Yi Bin, China
- 3 Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, China
Background: With ongoing healthcare system reforms in China and escalating demands for emergency services, emergency nurses frequently face high-pressure, complex work environments. This increases their psychological burden. Additionally, limited healthcare resources at the grassroots level and high workloads heighten their vulnerability to compassion fatigue. Current research into the interplay between psychological capital, perceived organizational support, and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses is limited, particularly regarding the mediating role of psychological capital.Objective: This study aims to explore the relationship between organizational support, psychological capital, and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses. It specifically investigates the mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship between organizational support and compassion fatigue.Methods: A total of 466 emergency nurses from medical institutions in the Chengdu-Chongqing area were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, the Sense of Organizational Support Scale, and the Compassion Fatigue Scale. The correlations among these variables were analyzed using SPSS 26.0, and the mediating effects were tested using AMOS 26.0.Results: There is a significant negative correlation between psychological capital and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses (r = -0.309, P < 0.01), as well as between organizational support and compassion fatigue (r = -0.449, P < 0.01). Psychological capital acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between organizational support and compassion fatigue, with a mediating effect value of -0.169, accounting for 27% of the total effect.The findings indicate a significant association between psychological capital, perceived organizational support, and compassion fatigue among emergency nurses, with psychological capital playing a mediating role. Enhancing psychological capital and perceived organizational support for emergency nurses is an effective strategy for managing emotional stress at work. Healthcare
Keywords: Emergency nurse, compassion fatigue, Psychological Capital, Organizational support, Mediating effect
Received: 25 Dec 2024; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xie, Zhu, Zhang, Tao and Zou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Liu Tao, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, 121001, Liaoning Province, China
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