Nursing is arguably one of the most stressful professions in healthcare. Nurses working in acute care settings are frequently exposed to traumatic and stressful events, such as clients' deterioration or death (Barleycorn, 2024; Kankaya et al., 2024; Rodney et al., 2022; Zeiher et al., 2022). These experiences could lead nurses to develop secondary traumatic stress (STS), which is a term often referring to the stress experienced by healthcare providers (Komachi et al., 2012; Sinclair et al., 2017). In light of the vulnerable nature of their clients and the emotionally-charged work environment, pediatric nurses are particularly likely to be exposed to STS in their workplaces, with reported rates of compassion fatigue and STS reaching more than half of pediatric nurses (Kellogg et al., 2018; Sarik et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2025).

Compassion is an essential component of the healthcare delivery process (Erbil & Pamuk, 2023; Naseri et al., 2022). It is a unique emotion driving healthcare professionals to help other people, which is manifested in situations when a nurse recognizes a patient's suffering and seeks to end it (Goetz et al., 2010; Von Dietze & Orb, 2000). Sacco & Copel, 2018 revealed that viewing caregiving as calling, having empathetic caregiving relationships with patients and their families, and having collegial support in stressful workplace environments could lead to compassion satisfaction, which is exhibited in enthusiastic and meaningful patient care, improved performance and competency, and a positive work environment and team coherence. Alternatively, compassion fatigue is an emotional concept that is related to a large group of work stressors specific to healthcare providers (Sinclair et al., 2017). Explicitly, compassion fatigue is a negative by-product of work stressors encountered in the workplace (Jin et al., 2021).

Since it was first described by Joinson (1992), compassion fatigue has been identified as a natural consequent set of behaviors and emotions resulting from being informed about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other, or the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person (Sabo, 2011). Compassion fatigue consists essentially of both burnout and STS (Maslach et al., 2001). In the realm of nursing practice, compassion fatigue is considered an approach to how nurses respond to work-related stressors (Sinclair et al., 2017). Nurses in particular experience significantly higher rates of STS and burnout in their workplaces compared to many other helping professions, including paramedics, psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, and police officers (Ondrejková & Halamová, 2022). In light of defining professional quality of life (ProQOL) among pediatric nurses as a dynamic process affected by different work environments and conditions, the Stamm's Professional Quality of Life Framework (Stamm, 2010) was adopted in this study to identify nurses having varying degrees of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue.

Nurses working in intensive care units and oncology departments report a higher likelihood of experiencing low compassion satisfaction and are more prone to developing higher levels of compassion fatigue (Algamdi, 2022; Storm & Chen, 2021). Compassion fatigue negatively affects nurses' health and their ability to meet their job demands (Happell et al., 2013; Pérez-García et al., 2021; Sharma et al., 2014). For instance, compassion fatigue predisposes nurses to a range of physical and mental illnesses and a drop in job involvement, which could result in a lack of work passion, low levels of work efficiency, negative attitudes regarding client safety, and even malpractice (Flynn et al., 2024; Jin et al., 2021). Furthermore, compassion fatigue has negative consequences on nursing staff, clients, and healthcare organizations in general, and limits the nurses' capacity to provide their highest quality of nursing care (Ames et al., 2017; Xie et al., 2021). However, the literature has shown inconsistency in findings related to nurses' experiences of compassion fatigue and satisfaction across inpatient units that differ in disease acuity (i.e., intensive vs. non-intensive units) (Amarneh & Al-Dwieb, 2022; Branch & Klinkenberg, 2015; Storm & Chen, 2021; Xie et al., 2021). In addition, to the best of our knowledge, no previous research has examined possible clusters of pediatric nurses based on their compassion experience. Therefore, the aims of this study were to assess the compassion experience in a sample of Jordanian pediatric nurses, to examine any differences in the nurses' compassion experiences between those working in intensive and non-intensive inpatient pediatric units, and to identify possible clusters of pediatric nurses based on their compassion experience profiles.