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Created By: Sara Desgranges, RN
Created By: Sara Desgranges, RN
Due to the nature of the healthcare, nurses and other healthcare professionals are more susceptible to direct and indirect workplace trauma and have the potential to develop symptoms of PTSD. A high stress work environment will inevitably lead to adverse effects on staff, and that paired with lack of support from management are precursors of PTSD. Burnout, job dissatisfaction, and underappreciation will eventually lead nurses to leave the profession. It is also highly likely that the situations that drove nurses away are also to blame for their poor mental health. A nurse’s poor mental health not only affects the individual, but may also affect patients by way of increased medication errors and lower quality patient care (Qian et al., 2022). To help reduce the incidence of PTSD among nursing staff, strategies need to be implemented by nursing leaders that will prioritize the mental health of staff and their working conditions. Interventions that have been trialed and shown real promise in improving and preventing PTSD are things like resilience training, care debriefing, guided imagery and interventions based on mindfulness (Hughes & McPeake, 2022).
https://stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/health/2017-04-03/living-in-a-violent-neighborhood-can-give-you-ptsd-study-suggests
Solutions Leaders Can Implement
Solutions Leaders Can Implement
Resilience training protects against stress-related mental health complications. The goal of resilience training is to improve the ability to successfully cope under adverse circumstances (Henshall et al., 2020). Through psychological methods of CBT, relaxation techniques, mindfulness, and emotional regulation, nurses can reduce stress, increase their emotional strength, and improve their overall quality of life. Resilience training has elicited positive, effective outcomes following the stressors from a traumatic event. Zhai et al. (2021) studied a group of 576 nurses that participated in resilience training that produced improved resilience scores of all that participated. It also showed that their levels of stress, depression, and burn out decreased after the training. Any interventions an organization can implement that are focused on enhancing resilience can help prevent and treat PTSD in healthcare workers (Qian et al., 2022).
Care debriefing is a structured process of reflection after a traumatic event with the goal of processing emotions, identifying areas of improvement with the hope that these steps will help to reduce the risk of PTSD (Kolbe et al., 2021). Because debriefings are multi-faceted and cost effective, when they are used consistently in the way they are designed, they can minimize negative health outcomes. There has been more emphasis on debriefings since the Covid-19 pandemic due to there being a need for nurses and other healthcare workers to have a voice and the structure of an effective support system. It is through debriefings that healthcare workers can discuss the unanticipated and difficult events and recommend things they may do differently the next time a situation arises. This allows the nurses and other members of the trauma team to directly address their wellbeing and to reduce instances of stress, burnout, and moral injury. (Evans et al., 2023). Because burnout and stress have a direct effect on PTSD, care briefing provides social and psychological support and is effective in reducing the impact these events may have on PTSD symptoms (Liu et al., 2023).
Angelina Case Study
Angelina Case Study
Angelina is not alone in her experiences or suffering. So many nurses are suffering from PTSD but do not have distinguishable symptoms while others just continue to push through the symptoms they are experiencing. Most importantly, is even though Angelina may not yet be aware that she is suffering from PTSD, her coworkers have noticed a change in her behavior and have grown concerned. They are in a place where they can view the situation objectively and report their concerns to a nurse leader or manager. It is important that this is done out of love and concern and that there is no malicious intent. It is equally important that Angelina’s manager approach her from that same place. Together they can walk through Angelina’s feelings and concerns and empathize and support her in any steps that may be needed to get her back to a place of manageable emotional and mental health. Maybe Angelina could benefit from time off, or maybe a change in shifts or a reduction in hours. Regardless of the accommodations that may need to be made, Angelina needs to know that she did nothing wrong, and that she shouldn’t be embarrassed or self-conscious of her mental state. If not handled properly it could result in animosity and push Angelina away from a place of healing.
References
Canva. (2024c). DreamLab. [Nurse leadership generated with AI prompt]. https://www.canva.com/dream-lab
Evans, T. R., Burns, C., Essex, R., Finnerty, G., Hatton, E., Clements, A. J., Breau, G., Quinn, F., Elliott, H., Smith, L. D., Matthews, B., Jennings, K., Crossman, J., Williams, G., Miller, D., Harold, B., Gurnett, P., Jagodzinski, L., Smith, J., … Weldon, S. (2023). A systematic scoping review on the evidence behind debriefing practices for the wellbeing/emotional outcomes of healthcare workers. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1078797
Henshall, C., Davey, Z., & Jackson, D. (2020). Nursing resilience interventions–a way forward in challenging healthcare territories. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(19–20), 3597–3599. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15276
Hughes, L., & McPeake, J. M. (2022). Preventing post-traumatic stress disorder and supporting the mental health of Hospital Nurses: Interventions and Innovations. Evidence Based Nursing, 25(4), 140–140. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2021-103508
Kolbe, M., Schmutz, S., Seelandt, J. C., Eppich, W. J., & Schmutz, J. B. (2021). Team Debriefings in Healthcare: Aligning intention and impact. BMJ. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2042
Liu, Y., Zou, L., Yan, S., Zhang, P., Zhang, J., Wen, J., Mao, J., Li, L., Wang, Y., & Fu, W. (2023). Burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among medical staff two years after the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China: Social Support and resilience as mediators. Journal of Affective Disorders, 321, 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.10.027
Qian, J., Wang, W., Sun, S., Liu, L., Sun, Y., & Yu, X. (2022). Interventions to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in health care professionals from 2011 to 2021: A scoping review. BMJ Open, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058214
Zhai, X., Ren, L., Liu, Y., Liu, C., Su, X., & Feng, B. (2021). Resilience training for nurses. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 23(6), 544–550. https://doi.org/10.1097/njh.0000000000000791
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