Exploratory factor analysis of shared trauma in psychiatric-mental health nurses using the Shared Trauma Professional Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (STPPG).

INTRODUCTION: The Shared Trauma Professional Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (STPPG) was developed by Tosone et al. (2014) to help understand shared trauma (ST) in social workers. ST occurs when the healthcare professional and client both experience the same collective traumatic event. This inventory has been adapted for use with mental health nurses. A cross-sectional study of N = 552 mental health nurses was completed in the spring of 2023 to assess the feasibility of using the STPPG to explore shared trauma in mental health nurses. METHODS: An exploratory factor analysis was run for the STPPG using squared multiple correlations with the maximum likelihood method. RESULTS: The alpha coefficient ranged from 0.82 to 0.89 for 2-factors and 0.73 to 0.89 for 3-factors. The results indicated that all correlations were significant among the total scales and subscales. All correlations were positive, ranging from 0.81 to 0.95 for two factors and 0.58 to 0.89 for three factors. CONCLUSION: The STPPG has confirmed a two-factor analysis for mental health nurses. The STPPG is a valid inventory to measure ST in mental health nurses and will allow the concept to be further studied.

Student Reflections on Shared Trauma: One Year Later.

In March of 2021, as the world marked the first anniversary since COVID-19 altered our reality, graduate social work students in Dr. Carol Tosone's Evidence-Based Trauma class at NYU considered the challenges of learning about trauma treatment while simultaneously living through a global trauma. Students reflected on their home lives, school experiences, field placements, mental health challenges, feelings of burnout, and the added complexities of racial disparities and injustices. Students also shared their coping mechanisms and hope for the future. This paper aims to provide insight into their varied experiences while relating their struggles and demonstrating their pathways toward resiliency.

Shared traumatic stress and the long-term impact of 9/11 on Manhattan clinicians.

A sample of 481 social workers from Manhattan participated in a study of the impact of the September 11, 2001 (9/11) World Trade Center (WTC) attacks. A variety of risk factors associated with posttraumatic stress and secondary trauma were examined in relation to shared traumatic stress (STS), a supraordinate construct reflecting the dual nature of exposure to traumatic events. Risk factors included attachment style, exposure to potentially traumatic life events, and enduring distress attributed to the WTC attacks. It was expected that clinicians' resilience would mediate the relationship between these risk factors and STS. Using path analytic modeling, the findings support the study's hypotheses that insecure attachment, greater exposure to potentially traumatic life events in general, and the events of 9/11 in particular are predictive of higher levels of STS. Contrary to expectation, enduring distress attributed to 9/11 was not associated with resilience. Resilience, however, was found to be a mediator of the relationships between insecure attachment, exposure to potentially traumatic life events, and STS but did not mediate the relationship between enduring distress attributed to 9/11 and STS. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

New York City social workers after 9/11: their attachment, resiliency, and compassion fatigue.

This study examines the relationship between attachment classification, resiliency, and compassion fatigue in New York social workers following 9/11. We used single occasion, quasi-random sampling, surveying 481 social workers living in Manhattan. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that secure attachment is predictive of the ability to cope with secondary traumatic stress as well as capacity for resilience, explaining approximately 7% of the variance in both compassion fatigue and resiliency. These findings suggest that secure attachment may serve as a source of resilience for social workers, immunizing them from significant compassion fatigue. Such findings have significant implications for clinicians working with traumatized populations.

Through their own eyes: a media-based group approach to adolescent trauma.

This paper describes the process of two groups of students from high schools located in the immediate vicinity of the World Trade Center grappling to make sense of the events of September 11 through the creation of a documentary chronicling their experiences. The process of creating these videos mirrored the process and curative factors of a psychotherapy group in a non-stigmatizing, innovative, and accessible format, one generated by the students themselves with the assistance of professionals in the visual and performing arts. After reviewing the literature on the potential impact of violence on adolescents and the use of group treatment, especially in school settings, as an optimal choice for this population, we describe the distinctive process of the two separate groups of students, each culminating in different expressions of their very personal experience of September 11. We understand and contextualize their process through the lens of the therapeutic dynamics and elements of group work.