Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and its associated factors among emergency department nurses in the Netherlands

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma and stressor-related disorder that may develop as a result of experiencing, witnessing of being confronted with a traumatic event. A traumatic event is a situation that is so extreme, so severe and so powerful that it may result in unusually strong emotional, cognitieve or behavioral reactions in the person experiencing it. Emergency department (ED) nurses are routinely confrontre with work-related potentially traumatic event, such as death, resuscitation, servere injury, verbal or physical aggression, and are thereby especially vulnerable to posttraumatic stress. Ineffective coping, such as avoidance and lack of social support may contribute to aggravation of PTSD symptoms and may prevent normal recovery. The aims of this study were to investigate the type and number of work-related potentially traumatic events, the prevalence of PTSD symptoms and its associated factor in a cohort of ED nurses in the Netherlands.