Factors Associated with Secondary Traumatic Stress among Emergency Nurses: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Background: Emergency nurses are exposed to traumatized patients as part of their job. Secondary exposure to trauma may lead to traumatic stress similar to those experienced by the primary victim. Emergency nurses develop secondary traumatic stress symptoms more than other nurses due to nature of emergency departments. The consequences of secondary traumatic stress can be noticed at personal, interpersonal, or organizational level. Objectives: This integrative review aimed to explore the literature on the factors attenuate or enhance occurrence of secondary traumatic stress among emergency nurses, to identify these factors, and to provide recommendations for research in the field. Method: An integrative literature review of quantitative and qualitative studies on secondary traumatic stress in emergency nurses were published in English language between 2000 and 2017 through the following data bases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), ProQuest, Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, SAGE Journals, Wiley on Line Library, Science Direct and EBSCOhost Sources. Results: The review identified that factors associated with secondary traumatic stress can be classified into personal and organizational factors. Findings on personal factors such as age, gender, and experience are controversial, whereas organizational factors such as trauma case load and perceived organizational support were found to predict traumatic stress more than the personal factors. Conclusions: Emergency nurses are at risk to develop traumatic stress and need to be aware to the contributing factors in order to maintain their well being. Further research is required to explore the factors enhance or attenuate occurrence of secondary traumatic stress.

Hardiness, Stress and Secondary Trauma in Italian Healthcare and Emergency Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Healthcare workers operating in emergency departments are at higher risk than workers from other departments of developing one or more symptoms of Vicarious Trauma or Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) [9,10], a common occurrence during catastrophes [1]. Secondary trauma is defined as indirect exposure to trauma, through a firsthand account or narrative of a traumatic event, that may result in a set of symptoms and reactions similar to those found in people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (e.g., re-experiencing, avoidance and hyperarousal).…”

Impact of Fear of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Nurses in Pakistan

“…Healthcare Workers serving in emergency departments experience a higher risk as compared to those working in other departments of developing one or more symptoms of secondary traumatic stress or vicarious trauma, a common phenomenon during such calamities (Morrison & Joy, 2016;Ornell et al, 2020;Ratrout & Hamdan-Mansour, 2017;Trzebi nski et al, 2020). Secondary trauma is the indirect exposure to trauma, through the firsthand narrative of a traumatic event, resultantly a set of reactions and symptoms like those found in the people with posttraumatic stress disorder (e.g., hyperarousal, avoidance and re-experiencing).…”

Secondary traumatic stress among emergency nurses: Prevalence, predictors, and consequences

“…Factors that enhance or prevent occurrence of STS symptoms can be classified into two main clusters: personal and organizational factors (Ratrout & Hamdan-Mansour, 2017). Both types of factors have to be considered to understand the process of developing STS symptoms (Dworkin, Sorell, & Allen, 2016).…”

“…The organizational factors found to be linked to STS are trauma case load (Hensel et al, 2015), organizational support (Townsend & Campbell, 2009), clinical supervision, and relationship with colleagues (Dworkin et al, 2016). A recent systematic review of literature showed that little is known about how these factors are combined to interact or predict STS among ER nurses (Ratrout & Hamdan-Mansour, 2017) in spite of valuable theoretical models that explain development of STS. There is no agreement on factors that may predict or associate with STS.…”

“…There is no agreement on factors that may predict or associate with STS. A recent systematic review of literature showed that little is known about how these factors are combined to interact or predict STS among ER nurses (Ratrout & Hamdan-Mansour, 2017) in spite of valuable theoretical models that explain development of STS. One of these frameworks is the Ecological Framework of Trauma Model (Dutton & Rubinstein, 1995).…”