The Effects of Traumatic Situations on Emergency Medicine Practitioners
The Effects of Traumatic Situations on Emergency Medicine Practitioners

Summary/Abstract: The physicians, the nurses and the paramedics who work in Emergency Medicine are exposed to events that involve human pain. They work to rescue individuals and they have to deal with stressful events, some of which could have a lasting impact. Vicarious trauma, as described in 1996, is a concept used to describe the experience of health workers who develop symptoms of traumatic stress as a consequence of working with traumatized individuals. The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary trauma, in the context of treating human pain. A total of 52 medical staff participated in the study. Scales for measuring vicarious trauma beliefs and secondary traumatic stress were administered to all the participants. The results emphasized the differences between nurses and physicians regarding the symptoms of traumatic stress and the associations between traumatic stress and vicarious trauma dysfunctional beliefs. The results are discussed from the perspective of the impact of work environment on personal well being.

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