Depicting occupational trauma concepts impacting nurse well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this concept delineation was to differentiate similar concepts impacting nurse well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, including: compassion fatigue, burnout, moral injury, secondary traumatic stress, and second victim. Methods A total of 63 articles were reviewed for concept delineation. Morse’s (1995) approach to concept delineation was utilized to analyse the articles. Results Concepts were described interchangeably but were found to present themselves in a sequence. A nurse may experience moral injury, leading to a second victim experience, synonymous with secondary traumatic stress, then compassion fatigue and/or burnout that can be acute or chronic in nature. An Occupational Trauma Conceptual Model was created to depict how these concepts interact based on concept delineation findings. Conclusion Nurses are experiencing long-lasting occupational trauma and future intervention research should centre on optimizing nurse well-being to ensure the sustainability of nursing profession.

Keywords

• nurse
• well-being
• burnout
• second victim
• compassion fatigue
• moral injury