Background Macro to Micro: As of February 1, 2021, Coronavirus has reached over 25 million cases in the United States, with over 438,035 deaths. In Utah, there areover 346,624 cases and 1665 deaths. Simultaneously, Salt Lake County has experienced 130,042 cases and 679 deaths. Problem: The nurses and healthcare staff taking care of these patients are tired. Most of them have been working on the front line since March 2020. They have experienced situations that have possibly very different outcomes. The training they have received up to this point helped guide them, but the rules and guidelines change often. The hope was that by implementing education of what compassion fatigue (CF) is and ways to combat the issues, we would help nurses and healthcare workers function productively and rationally in their clinical environment. Theory: The cognitive theory by Aaron Beck would best fit for this scholarly project. In this theory, Beck generalizes some cognitions as faulty and labels them cognitive distortions. Evidence Based Practice Model: The Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model (JHNEBP) seems to be the best fit for the project. The JHNEBP model is broken down into three main areas: practice question, evidence, and translation. Method: The main objective of data collection was to evalutate the level of CF in nurses and healthcare workers. This was done via a survey in Microsoft forms. The survey link was emailed to the participants both in December 2020 and January 2021. The email was sent to participants from the Salt Lake County Health Department to control who receives the email invitation. Microsoft Forms was anonymous and did gather data based on the ProQOL survey. Initially there were 21 responses from the first data collection. This data was evaluated for consistency and burnout (BO) measures. After the CF education was delivered, the same survey was completed. A total of 15 responses were received from the follow-up survey. The goal was to have scores improve, and CF decreased. It was hoped that staff retention increased through the COVID testing sites, with turnover decreasing. Results: The findings all came back not statistically significant. This could have been a results of inability to pair survey responses, small sample size, or only a one-month duration. Since there was not a lot of current literature this was not completed surprising. Conclusion: It is recommended that nurses and healthcare staff receive some education on CF, signs and symptoms, and ways to alleviate the issue. The literature reviewed suggests that CF in the nursing profession and healthcare workers is at epidemic proportions. Current research supports providing education on CF interventions; however, more research is needed to identify the most accurate CF assessments and interventions to counteract the effects.
