To identify and synthesise intervention programs designed to address compassion fatigue among nurses, with a focus on their types and core characteristics.
A scoping review.
This review was conducted according to the scoping review guidelines proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and met the requirements of PRISMA-ScR guidelines.
Literature published between January 2015 and March 2025 was thoroughly searched in Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library, APA PsycNet, Science Direct, and ProQuest. Major search terms included ‘compassion fatigue’, ‘secondary traumatic stress’, ‘burnout’, ‘nurses’ and ‘intervention’.
Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Interventions were categorised as: (1) Enhancement of Organisation and Social Support, (2) Development of Individual Psychological Capacities, (3) Systemic-level Interventions, these results align with the framework of the job demands resources theory.
This review highlights diversity in the focus. While some emphasised on strengthening the job resources and building the personal individual-based resources, few others focused on system level interventions to address compassion fatigue in nurses. The findings also emphasise the importance and need for customised and accessible support strategies at both individual and organisational levels. Nurse well-being and resilience interventions promote balanced job settings and quality health care support.
This review provides a foundation for designing comprehensive, empirically supported strategies to address compassion fatigue in nursing. Future research should focus on integrating individual and systemic support to build a healthy work environment.
This review helps to understand the core characteristics and types of existing interventions addressing compassion fatigue among nurses, and highlights the need to focus on both individual as well as organisational needs and outcomes, thereby enhancing the well-being of nurses and creating healthy work environments.
PRISMA-ScR was used in this scoping review.
No patient or public contribution.
Improving outcomes from sepsis in children is a WHO Global Health Priority, yet mortality from sepsis remains high, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This database from children with community-acquired childhood sepsis in LMICs and some high-income countries will allow analysis of the burden of disease, including incidence, severity and outcomes. Understanding these aspects of sepsis care is fundamental for the design and conduct of future international interventional trials to improve childhood sepsis outcomes.
This multicountry retrospective observational study will include children up to 18 years of age presenting to emergency departments with suspected sepsis, defined as admission to hospital for treatment with intravenous antibiotics plus (1) a provisional diagnosis of sepsis and/or (2) treatment for suspected sepsis (operationalised as the administration of one or more fluid bolus to treat impaired perfusion or vasoactive infusion). Presenting characteristics, management and outcomes will be collected. These will include vital signs, serum biomarkers, intravenous fluid administration for the first 24 hours of hospitalisation, organ support therapies delivered, antimicrobial use, microbiological diagnoses, hospital and intensive care unit length of stay, and mortality censored at hospital discharge or 30 days from enrolment (whichever occurs first).
Central ethics approval was received from the Royal Children’s Hospital of Melbourne, Australia Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/100648/RCHM-2023). Each international site will be required to obtain local Institutional Research Ethics Board approval. The findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals, at academic conferences and through lay media. A cleaned study database and individual site-level data will be made available to site investigators upon completion of the study.
This study was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry on 23 January 2024 prior to commencement of recruitment (ACTRN12624000052538).