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: 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. In another example of the impact of vicarious trauma, a nurse with 22 years of experience left the profession with feelings of “turmoil, shame, and confusion,” as she describes in Reflections on Nursing Leadership. Not until much later did she realize that she was experiencing secondary traumatic stress. She found that she had become “hardened and cynical,” and she felt “crippled when confronted again by suffering,” which led to “feelings of hopelessness, withdrawal, and lack of self-esteem.” Her coping mechanisms included “going silent . . . redirecting, shutting down, minimizing, or ignoring the experiences of patients.”