Enhancing Trauma Resilience in Nurses and Personal Support Workers: A Feasibility Study of an 8-Week Supportive Trauma Exposure Preparation Intervention

Abstract

Background

Nurses and personal support workers (PSWs) frequently face trauma in their work without sufficient resources to manage the resulting emotional stress. This contributes to high rates of burnout, which have remained elevated since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose

To address the need for effective interventions that mitigate the impact of trauma exposure in the healthcare workplace, we developed the Supportive Trauma Exposure Preparation (STEP) program, an 8-week virtual psychotherapy intervention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of the STEP program in reducing burnout and enhancing resilience.

Methods

A pilot study was conducted with 35 nurses and PSWs in Ontario assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of the STEP program at three months follow-up. Participants attended 8 weekly psychotherapy sessions, provided feedback on their experiences, and completed measures of burnout, resilience, mood, anxiety, and work and life functioning.

Results

The study demonstrated strong feasibility and acceptability, with high participant engagement and satisfaction with the STEP program. Improvements in burnout and work functioning were observed at the three-month follow-up.

Conclusions

The STEP program shows promise as a novel intervention addressing the critical unmet need for preventing and managing the detrimental effects of trauma exposure among nurses and PSWs in the healthcare workplace. ClinicalTrials.gov Registration # NCT04682561 (URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04682561)

Keywords

Nurses trauma workplace stress burnout resilience psychotherapy

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