Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

5-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Richard Beck

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Stephen Allison

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Amy Toone

Abstract

Thousands of cross-cultural nurses are deployed worldwide into countries other than their home countries, which can be in developing areas where vast amounts of disease, famine, poverty, and conflict exist. In an effort to provide necessary and otherwise inaccessible aid to the residents in these areas, nurses and other mission workers volunteer their time and expertise toward alleviating the physical and emotional suffering of these unfortunate individuals. Working under such traumatic conditions can lead professionals and paraprofessionals alike to becoming predisposed to various psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can be long-lasting and affect multiple areas of one's life. This was a study conducted on a convenience sample of 35 nurses working in multiple regions in Africa and Western-Asia who were asked to complete an online questionnaire containing demographic information and two sections of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire-Revised, which assessed for PTSD symptoms and events. The findings suggested that older and more experienced nurses reported less PTSD symptoms, and younger, less experienced nurses reported more symptoms; however, one significant correlation was noted between age and arousal, which suggested that perhaps the younger nurses are experiencing more anxiety or stress, as opposed to PTSD. The most frequently reported traumatic event reported was robbery at 57.1%. Approximately 8.5% met PTSD criteria, and approximately 23% were at a level of clinical concern. Overall, these rates are higher than the national PTSD prevalence rates suggesting a need for treatment within this population.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.