As of April 2020, more than 2 million people worldwide had tested positive for COVID‐19, and more than 200,000 deaths are attributed to this virus. It is estimated that around 15% of patients diagnosed with COVID‐19 will develop severe health complications, and around 5‐ 10% will require intensive level care due to the seriousness of the symptoms and the high mortality risk (3‐5%)( Baud et al., 2020; Murthy, Gomersall, & Fowler, 2020). At the time of writing, COVID‐19 has caused the need for hospitalisation of thousands of people due to the serious pneumonia type symptoms that result in extreme breathing difficulty.

Compassion fatigue in critical care nurses. An integrative review of the literature

The aim of the study was to explore the prevalence of burnout and job satisfaction among Saudi national critical care nurses. Burnout is caused by a number of factors, including personal, organisational and professional issues. Previous literature reports a strong relationship between burnout and job satisfaction among critical care nurses. Little is known about this phenomenon among Saudi national critical care nurses. A convenience sample of 150 Saudi national critical care nurses from three hospitals in Hail, Saudi Arabia were included in a cross-sectional survey. Saudi national critical care registered nurses reported moderate to high levels of burnout in the areas of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. Participants also reported a feeling of ambivalence and dissatisfaction with their jobs but were satisfied with the nature of their work. Saudi national critical care nurses experience moderate to high levels of burnout and low levels of job satisfaction. Burnout is a predictor of job satisfaction for Saudi national critical care nurses. These results provide clear evidence of the need for nurse managers and policy makers to devise strategies to help nurses better cope with a stressful work environment, thereby also improving job satisfaction among Saudi national critical care nurses.