Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
7-2021
Document Type
DNP Project
Department
Nursing
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Sandra Cleveland
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Linda Gibson
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Cheryl Green
Abstract
Abstract Workplace stress and associated disorders (occupational burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, critical incident stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, etc.) disproportionately affect healthcare workers, especially those working in critical care and emergency environments. The financial cost of stress related after-effects experienced by health care workers exceeds $191 billion each year and includes the cost of associated decreased quality of patient care, missed diagnoses, medical errors, and sentinel events leading to patient disablement or mortality. Mental health interventions such as stress management education and critical incident debriefings have been proven effective in reducing workplace stress and building personal resilience. A gap in practice was identified in the lack of a formal stress management education process in the participating facility. The purpose of this DNP project was to obtain consensus from a multidisciplinary panel of content experts to determine pertinent components for inclusion in a Stress Management and Critical Incident policy brief. The theoretical model guiding this project was the transactional model of stress and coping, which provides an interactive approach to developing coping skills and resiliency. This policy draft may be used to develop a formal program of stress management education for leadership and staff, critical incident debriefing, and institutional changes to promote a safe and effective work environment. Keywords: stress, critical incident, debriefing, occupational burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, coping, resilience
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Rowland, Karen Loraine Hasie, "Policy Development: Stress Management and Critical Incident Debriefing" (2021). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 388.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/388