The effectiveness of self-compassion training on psychological capital, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in nurses

Nursing jobs have a stressful and turbulent nature, so that nurses have to provide medical and care services in environments with very high patient density and limited facilities. These difficult conditions lead to high levels of stress and anxiety among this hardworking class. Therefore, this research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of self-compassion training on psychological capital, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in nurses.

This research was experimental and semi-experimental using the pre-test-post-test method with a control group. The statistical population of the research included the nurses of Razi Qaimshahr Hospital in 1403. 30 of these people were selected using a targeted method and then were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Data were collected using Luthans Psychological Capital Questionnaire (2007) (PCQ), Minnesota Job Satisfaction (1977) (MSQ) and emotional exhaustion by Chen et al. (2019). Then, the data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate covariance methods in SPSS-26 software.

The results showed that all dependent variables include psychological capital (P < 0.05, F (25, 1) 105.17), job satisfaction (P < 0.05, F = 64.38 (25, 1)  and emotional fatigue (P < 0.05, F = 427.56) (25, 1) have become significant in the post-test stage. Therefore, teaching self-compassion was effective on psychological capital, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in nurses.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that nurses can take a step towards taking care of moral and human values ​​and principles by cultivating the spirit of self-compassion within them. This helps them to understand and accept their problems and failures, look at them from a kind and empathetic point of view and try to improve and grow. Also, teaching self-compassion not only has a positive effect on the psychological capital of nurses, but can also lead to an increase in job satisfaction and a decrease in their emotional exhaustion.