Abstract
This chapter seeks to analyze the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on nurses and how it has affected the prevalence of compassion fatigue, moral injury, and overall job satisfaction. It examines current intervention strategies and frameworks and offers recommendations for how these systems may be improved to better support nurses. Numerous instruments have been developed in an attempt to study compassion fatigue. One of the most widely used of these instruments is the professional quality of life (ProQOL) scale. Using the ProQOL scale as a foundation, the author conducted an anonymous survey of nurses (n = 91) employed at a major university-affiliated hospital in Chicago. The author also conducted two longer individual interviews with nurses who are employed at this hospital. The pandemic has profoundly harmed nurses and triggered a cascading stream of consequences. The pandemic has increased the prevalence of both compassion fatigue and moral injury. Nurses are chronically overworked and lack critical resources and support from hospital management.
