Pediatric novice nurses: examining compassion fatigue Article Critique

    Article critique Name Institution Date   Article 3 Meyer, R., Li, A., Klaristenfeld, J., & Gold, J. (2015). Pediatric novice nurses: examining compassion fatigue as a mediator between stress exposure and compassion satisfaction, burnout, and job satisfaction. Journal Of Pediatric Nursing, 30(1), 174-183. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2013.12.008 The researchers investigated whether or not compassion fatigue is associated with nurse stress exposure, burnout and job dissatisfaction. On Melnyk’s rating scale, this article can be placed on the fifth level of evidence because researchers administered Events Checklist to over 250 novice pediatric nurses in the initial stage of the nurse residency program.  The results of this research reveal that excessive stress exposure contributes to nursing burnout and low job satisfaction. Stress exposure also increases the risk of compassion fatigue, affecting both nurses and patients. The article is both valid and reliable because the evidence provided by the group of experts aligns with changes in nursing practice.  The Life Events Checklist (LEC) was used to screen for stressful and potentially traumatizing events settings, is a validated measure and it has been previously been demonstrated in other studies that there is stable test-retest reliability for 7 days or more (Meyer, Li, Klaristenfeld, & Gold, 2015).  Similarly, the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) has internal reliability. However, the respondents were asked questions through a survey, their responses maybe biased, which affects reliability of the data unlike the fact based questions. Reliability of longitudinal studies partly depends on the test model chosen. Burnout was assessed 3 months after baseline and for job satisfaction 6 months thereafter and this improved the validity of the study as this improves accuracy of the data when time is taken to collect the data. While working in acute care environments, nurses should be allowed to reduce their number of working hours so that they can have enough time for relaxation and per...