Sensory processing sensitivity and compassion fatigue in intensive care unit nurses: A chain mediation model

Compassion among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses is an essential component of humanistic care in the ICU However, the enormous pressures of the job and the lack of social support have led to persistently severe compassion fatigue. Sensory processing sensitivity, as a personality trait for individuals to perceive external factors, has underlying significance for compassion fatigue. This study aims to investigate the internal and external environmental factors and the underlying mechanisms that influence the impact of sensory processing sensitivity among ICU nurses on the development of compassion fatigue. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 290 nurses from various hospitals in five cities in China. A self-designed demographic questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Professional Quality of Life Scale, the Chinese version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, the Chinese version of the Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale were used to survey 290 ICU nurses. The mediating roles of perceived social support and perceived stress between sensory processing sensitivity and compassion fatigue were tested. The research results indicate that the total effect of sensory processing sensitivity on compassion fatigue is significant (0.245 [0.093, 1.160]), whereas the direct effect of sensory processing sensitivity on compassion fatigue is not significant (−0.43 [-0.402, 0.247]). Perceived social support and perceived stress exhibit serial mediating effects between sensory processing sensitivity and compassion fatigue (−0.065 [-0.142, -0.013]). Our results revealed, for the first time, the underlying mechanism between sensory processing sensitivity and compassion fatigue among ICU nurses. Providing necessary stress-relief condition and abundant social support are important measures for nursing managers to reduce compassion fatigue and improve the quality of critical care humanistic nursing services.