Articles by Margaret Turley

Friday, February 4, 2011

Nurses at Risk for PTSD

PTSD is an occupational hazard for nursing. It is estimated that up to 14 percent of the overall general nursing population experience symptoms that meet the criteria to be diagnosed with PTSD, which is 4 times higher than the general adult population.
Critical care and emergency department (ED) nurses have a higher incidence of PTSD symptoms. As many as 25 percent of critical care nurses 33 percent of ED nurses have screened positive for symptoms of PTSD. Contributing factors for these areas may be the repeated exposure to mortality and morbidity. Nurses in these specialty areas often have repeated exposure to both the victims of traumatic event, as nurses in these specialties witness more deaths.
Other groups of nurses considered especially vulnerable to PTSD are military nurses, nurses in labor and delivery units, as well as those who are first responders to respond to disasters and may witness multiple deaths in one event. Among many other traumatic events that contribute to nurses developing PTSD are occupational hazards such as needlesticks and threats of violence from the patient and family members.
Another closely related problem is fatigue - a reality in nursing. Every day, during every shift, nurses can experience fatigue of their minds, bodies and spirits. Workload, work hours, work structures and many other factors can indirectly or directly cause fatigue in this professional group.
Professional, caring, competent, compassionate, and courageous nurses are what the public expects and the patients and families who entrust us with their care deserve. As nurses and nurse leaders, we have an obligation to be "fit for duty" when reporting to work, and a duty to construct and support healthy work environments for optimizing professional practice.
I believe this is probably why I am now retired from nursing. Not diagnosed as PTSD - but I have all the same symptoms described above after thirty four years of nursing.
I switched careers to writing - without the stress and worry that someone's life was in my hands. Instead I educate through blogs, writing articles, and books.