Abstract
Emergency nurses are exposed to traumatic events and routine stressors, both of which can lead to the development of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptomatology. However, there are currently no instruments designed to assess the impact and frequency of such sources of stress in nurses. The Traumatic and Routine Stressors Scale on Emergency Nurses (TRSS-EN) was built for this purpose. A sample of 147 emergency nurses from three hospitals in Madrid (Spain) completed this 13-item scale. The analyses showed a factorial structure composed of two factors. The first is characterized by items regarding traumatic and stressful events and procedures of severe magnitude (traumatic stressors), and the second by items related to stressful events and procedures of moderate magnitude (routine stressors) but hypothesized to possess a substantial traumatic potential. Analyses provided evidence of both adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.92; first factor α = 0.91 and second factor α = 0.86) and test–retest reliability. In addition, concurrent validity also proved to be satisfactory. In short, TRSS-EN seems to be a reliable and valid tool in a healthcare emergency nursing setting for screening the frequency and impact of exposure to everyday work-related traumatic stressors, either event-related or routine.
Highlights
Nurses at emergency services are exposed to traumatic and stressful events of different types and severity as a part of their everyday work
The purpose of this study was to build a psychometric instrument to assess the severity and the frequency of exposure to severe traumatic events usually faced by emergency nurses, and to routine stressors which are usual in an everyday work scenario and which may eventually increase the risk of developing traumatic symptomatology
The analyses showed firstly that the factorial solution was composed of two dimensions, these two dimensions corresponding to, respectively, traumatic events and procedures of significant magnitude and stressful events and procedures of moderate magnitude
Summary
Nurses at emergency services are exposed to traumatic and stressful events of different types and severity as a part of their everyday work. It is well known that exposure to both severe traumatic events [1] and to less significant, routine events [2] may potentially produce general psychiatric and, in particular, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptomatology. The scales currently available that are intended to assess the impact of stressors in an everyday working setting for emergency nurses do not differentiate between the exposure to traumatic events and routine stressors. These scales do not consider the frequency of the exposure to such events. Several studies failed to find this relationship [10,11]; it is not clear that more severe traumatic events increase the probability of developing symptomatology or that this symptomatology is more severe
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