TITLE:
Factors Associated with Secondary Traumatic Stress among Emergency Nurses: An Integrative Review
AUTHORS:
Hamza F. Ratrout, Ayman M. Hamdan-Mansour
KEYWORDS:
Secondary Traumatic Stress, Emergency, Nurses, Factors, Integrative Review
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.7 No.11,
November
14,
2017
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.