How to Identify Vicarious Trauma in Your Nurses

Relationships between your nurses and their patients are often close and personal. This immediacy often exposes staff members to the stress and trauma that their patients are experiencing. A typical caseload may include patients undergoing trauma, violence, abuse, death and fear. The connection between caregiver and patient deepens through a desire to alleviate pain and suffering. However, these connections can have long-term psychological consequences for the caregiver. It is essential that you do not write off vicarious trauma symptoms simply as the cost of caring for others. The emotional residue of exposure to a patient’s trauma can severely impact your caregivers. Here is how to identify vicarious and secondary trauma in your nurses and some suggestions for helping them cope.  

Vicarious Trauma 

Vicarious trauma is the product of repeated exposure to other people’s trauma. It occurs when health care workers emulate the bio-psychosocial effects that victims of trauma display. This type of trauma builds up over time, and it is a cumulative transformation which directly impacts the physical and mental health of a health care worker. Over time, vicarious trauma can alter a worker’s character and beliefs. 

Secondary Traumatic Stress 

Secondary trauma occurs when an individual experiences PTSD-like symptoms without witnessing or being involved in a traumatic event. A traumatic event for a patient can become a traumatic event for a health care worker. Secondary trauma differs from vicarious trauma in that it occurs suddenly and unexpectedly instead of gradually developing over time.  

Symptoms 

People never respond in the same manner to a traumatic event. A health care worker who is experiencing vicarious or secondary trauma may experience the following: 

• Headache 
• Heartburn 
• Emotional instability 
• Anxiety and irritability 
• Social withdrawal 
• Addictive behavior 
• Loss of purpose and hope 

Serious consequences can result from a failure to address these symptoms. These outcomes might include mental health disorders, detachment, emotional distress and substance abuse.  

Organizational and Individual Prevention Strategies 

Exposure to high stress working environments directly influences the safety of health care workers. As such, the ability to cope with these stressors requires protective measures from your organization and your nurses.  

It would help if you created policies and procedures to prevent the risk of vicarious and secondary trauma from your organizational level. You will want to include educational materials about mental health issues and support systems. See to it that your managers encourage professional development as well as a proper work/life balance.  

Instruct your nurses to master strategies for avoiding stress and trauma. Teach the importance of self-awareness and work/life balance. Stress the importance of retaining personal and social connections, pursuing hobbies and growing professionally. Both organizational and individual strategies can help to protect individuals from work-related stress and trauma.  

We Can Help Empower Your Nurses

If you want to empower your nurses to reach their full potential, contact Nursing Career Coach. With a focus on nursing retention and new hire engagement, Nursing Career Coach uses data-driven science to help health care organizations decrease their turnover and fill open positions with qualified internal candidates.