American Trauma Society: 2nd Trauma Program

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American Trauma Society Improving Care, Saving Lives

2nd Trauma Research

From time to time the 2nd Trauma program will conduct original research studies to learn more about the emotional needs of trauma families and critical care staff. It is also possible that outcome studies will be undertaken to measure the impact or effectiveness of certain 2nd Trauma programs.

There is a good possibility that two ATS research efforts will be published in the near future. Therefore, it is not feasible of us to release all of the relevant findings here at this time.

Below are some of the preliminary findings of a stress study of ATS members (mostly nurses and physicians) conducted in the fall of 2002. The scores reflect the rating by 200 of the 279 respondents (the study is being completed at this time).

NATURE OF THE STRESSOR	MEAN SCORE	RANKING
Talking with the family after the death of a child	4.50	1
Child’s injury/death related to child abuse	4.40	2
Dealing with a family that is extremely angry	4.10	3
Being physically attacked by family/visitor	3.53	4
Your patient dies	3.51	5
Talking with the family after an adult death	3.46	6
Treating a patient that resembles family/friend	3.46	7
The injury/illness could have been prevented	3.33	8
The feeling that the family not treated sensitively	3.12	9
Feeling like a failure in some aspect of your work	3.00	10
Anger because your unit is understaffed	2.90	11
Treating a horribly disfigured patient	2.86	12
Treating a brain damaged or spinal cord patient	2.70	13
Feeling a lack of recognition for good work done	2.65	14
Flashbacks/nightmares after a disturbing incident	2.32	15

The 2nd Trauma program would like to hear from ATS members and others about the kinds of research data that would be of use to critical care staff in all disciplines. Future exploratory and outcome studies may be conducted in combination with academic and professional organizations. Contact us for further information.

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