Title: What is Vicarious Trauma | AHU Online
Headings: Vicarious Trauma: Information, Prevention and Resources
Vicarious Trauma: Information, Prevention and Resources
What Is Vicarious Trauma?
Examples of Vicarious Trauma
How to Identify Vicarious Trauma
How to Address Vicarious Trauma
Vicarious Trauma and the AHU Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Recommended Readings
Sources

Content: Examples of Vicarious Trauma
A nurse educator observing interactions between patients and nurses in emergency rooms notices that new nurses are “excited, enthusiastic and engaged with patients,” as the Association of American Medical Colleges notes. By contrast, the nurses who have 20 to 30 years of work experience appear detached from their patients, as if they are “going through the motions” and “have built walls to avoid the hurt” of witnessing their suffering and trauma. The term “compassion fatigue” is ill suited to describe this situation because the veteran nurses haven’t lost their compassion or desire to help people. Instead, they are experiencing “professional emotional saturation,” which combines symptoms of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Burnout originates externally: It is caused by working long hours and having too much work to do. Also contributing to burnout is the fact that nurses don’t have enough time to spend with each patient, in part because they are constantly entering data into computers and devices. In contrast, secondary traumatic stress originates within: It results from sharing the grief when a patient dies and from feeling overwhelmed by negative emotions. While all healthcare professionals must feel some detachment in their work, with secondary traumatic stress the detachment becomes extreme and leads to cynicism, jadedness, and depersonalization.