5-1 Critique
Jason Bergeron, Registered Nurse
Southern New Hampshire University
The purpose of the study conducted by Dev, Fernando, Lim, and Consedine (2018) was
to explore how compassion impacted the phenomenon of nursing burnout and barriers to
compassion. Their proposed research question was, “Does the development of self-compassion
reduce the experience of carer, patient, environmental, and clinical barriers to compassion.”
Although past research has explored many issues related to nursing burnout, it has yet to identify
the relationship between self-compassion and burnout. The authors believed that self-compassion
could buffer the association between negative psychological constructs as well as physical and
mental health.
In order to obtain the necessary data, the authors gathered information from 799
registered nurses who were recruited through a non-random convenience sampling. Utilizing
voluntary participation, subjects were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire that
measured the variables of burnout, barriers to compassion, and self-compassion. Proper action
was taken to exclude participants who provided data that were not in current patient contact. The
methods used in this study were rigorous as the authors addressed potential weaknesses of the
design and planned accordingly.
The study used appropriate validity scales to measure the aspects they were attempting to
research. To measure professional burnout, they used the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory and in
their study was found to have a Cronbach alpha of .92 for internal reliability. The second scale
used was the Barriers to Physician Compassion Questionnaire, which was trialed before
implementation to ensure accuracy as physicians and nurses had different roles in the healthcare
system. The final scale used was the Self-Compassion Scale- Short Form which has been shown
to have both a high internal reliability as well as high face, content, convergent and divergent
reliability. Given the findings that were obtained through this studies research, the conclusions
reached were appropriate and accurate. There was a signification correlation between instances
of greater burnout and the four barriers to compassion which were feeling burnt out, the work
environment, patients and families, and the clinical picture.
As with a correlational design approach, there was the incapability of causality between
variables. I do believe that the strengths of this article do outweigh its weakness though. There is
enough evidence provided by the authors that establishes connections between variables
especially the link between self-compassion and the mitigation of burnout. Through proper
collection, analyzation, and presentation of data, I believe that the authors of this study did
successfully substantiate their proposed research question. There were however some limitations
to this study, with the major limitation being the inability to evaluate specific types of burnout
and their relation to self-compassion. In further expanding upon the findings of this study, I
suggest performing an experimental research study that teaches a nurse how to perform
mindfulness and how it impacts the four barriers to compassion.
References
Dev, V., Fernando, I. A. T., Lim, A. G., & Consedine, N. S. (2018). Does self-compassion
mitigate the relationship between burnout and barriers to compassion? A cross-sectional
quantitative study of 799 nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 81, 81–88.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2018.02.003