ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Compassion fatigue is a common phenomenon among healthcare professionals and includes several concepts that share a direct relationship with quality of life, with consequences on both physical and emotional well-being but also at the economic and organizational levels. OBJECTIVES: To analyze the profile of scientific publications on compassion fatigue, dissecting trends, and highlighting research opportunities. METHOD: Bibliometric analysis based on Donthu's guidelines, data collection from Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), and analytic techniques (performance analysis and science mapping) with VOSviewer® and CiteSpace®. RESULTS: We obtained 1364 articles and found that the concept emerged in 1995 and is frequently associated with areas of general health. Through analysis, we identified the following research frontiers: "vicarious traumatization", "working", "survivor", "mental health", and "impact". CONCLUSION: There has been a growing interest in this subject among researchers, with an increase in scientific production related to areas of health such as nursing, providing a solid starting point for further investigation. Registration number from the Open Science Framework: osf.io/b3du8.
ABSTRACT
AIM: This study aims to assess the influence of training on nurses' attitudes toward end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic alarm state in Spain. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Data collection was carried out by means of an ad hoc questionnaire using Google Forms in April and May 2020. The score of attitudes toward end-of-life care was used, to which sociodemographic variables and training in palliative care were added. METHODS: Data were collected from 238 nursing professionals who had cared for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 adult patients at the end-of-life stage in a hospital or nursing home. RESULTS: Results showed that 51% of the nurses in the sample had training in palliative care. However, the percentage decreased to 38.5% among those who cared for COVID-19 patients and to 44.5% in those who cared for non-COVID-19 patients. In relation to attitudes about end-of-life care, more positive attitudes and a higher mean score were found in the trained group. CONCLUSIONS: Palliative care training is a key element in end-of-life care and is even more important in times of COVID-19. IMPACT: Although end-of-life accompaniment has been studied, few studies have included the influence of training on this during the pandemic. This study identifies key elements of accompaniment and training in a comparison of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. In relation to attitudes toward end-of-life care, the results showed a more positive attitude and a higher mean score in the trained group (3.43 ± 0.37 versus 3.21 ± 0.32), the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.001).