Role of Psychosocial Factors In Vicarious Traumatization: A Comparative Study

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed at investigating the role of psychosocial factors such as, gender, marital status, profession, and personal history of trauma in vicarious traumatization (VT). METHODOLOGY: Cross sectional study was conducted at various hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad over the period of 6 months from January 2018 to June 2018. A sample of 170 healthcare professionals (doctors=39, psychiatrists=27, psychologists=36, nurses=30 and others=38) (men=67, women=103) was taken from various hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Data were collected by using the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale. RESULTS: Results revealed significant differences have been found among various groups of healthcare professionals (doctors, psychiatrist, psychologists, nurses and others) in whom psychiatrists are the most vulnerable group for vicarious traumatization and psychologists are the least vulnerable group. Moreover, healthcare professionals who are married and have personal history of trauma are more vulnerable for vicarious traumatization as compared to those who are unmarried and without personal history of trauma. No significant gender differences have been found among health care professionals on vicarious traumatization. CONCLUSION: The findings of present research have emphasized that vicarious traumatization must be addressed and identified in a health setting.

Psychological demands of health professionals in the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

Recent literature emphasizes how the specific stressors of the COVID-19 outbreak affect the general population and frontline professionals, including those conducting support or backup activities in health units, which can lead to vicarious traumatization. Vicarious traumatization has been used to describe negative emotional reactions in mental health professionals who assist or treat victims of traumatic events. Thus, the aim of this article is to report the actions used in the face of the psychological demands of professionals in a hospital, who were not on the frontline of COVID-19. We collected their sociodemographic information and checked the psychological impact using the depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21), which was followed by a psychoeducational program (topics related to COVID-19 control and prevention), and individual psychological care for the most severe cases. A total of 118 professionals participated in this study; they were between 20 and 67 years old. Mild to moderate anxiety was observed in 36.5% of the medical teams, 83.3% of the administrative staff, and 65.7% of general service workers, while stress symptoms were observed in 80.2%, 83.3%, and 59.9%, respectively. Depressive symptoms (35.3%) were more frequent in general service workers. The medical teams reported the benefits of primary psychological care, while the other professionals demanded more institutional support services related to the prevention and use of personal protective equipment. This study highlights relevant psychological demands that have repercussions on the daily lives of professionals. The psychoeducational program was considered positive regarding clarification actions. However, it was not perceived as effective in reducing fear, which may result from vicarious traumatization and requires other intervention modalities.

The Impact of a Switch from Conventional Media to Digital Media in the Treatment of Vicarious Trauma During Art Therapy

In the United States, the use of digital media has become omnipresent and has changed how people communicate, conduct business, and create art and music. However, art therapy lags behind the current culture of prolific use of digital media. To date, there is very little experimental research on the use of digital media in the field of art therapy. The deficiency of evidence that digital media is as effective as conventional media is an obstacle to a full embrace and adoption of technology in practice by the field. The present study was designed to address this lack of evidence. Specifically, this study examined the impact of a switch from conventional to digital media in a mandala-based art therapy upon three dependent variables of interest. These variables were anxiety, vicarious traumatization, and client treatment satisfaction. An ABAB reversal design was used. Results suggested that such a switch had no impact.

Vicarious Traumatization: The Impact of Nursing upon Nurses

<p>The aims of this research were to explore mental health nurses' knowledge and experience of vicarious traumatization (VT). Literature linking mental health nursing and VT is sparse. VT is an enduring trauma that affects those who engage empathically across time and with different patients. Mental health nurses form ongoing therapeutic relationships with patients to foster healing. This empathic engagement leaves nurses vulnerable to VT. This project is qualitatively designed using narrative enquiry with in-depth, semistructured interviews of mental health nurses. Data gathered was thematically analysed and four main themes identified: the impact of VT; self-knowledge/self-awareness; self-care; and burnout. Participants in this study felt unprepared for the negative impact of mental health nursing and learned of VT 'on the job'. My recommendations include education on identifying VT, and self-care, including clinical supervision, to ameliorate the effects of VT. Further research is needed to explore the links between VT and mental health nursing.</p>

Vicarious Traumatization: The Impact of Nursing upon Nurses

<p>The aims of this research were to explore mental health nurses' knowledge and experience of vicarious traumatization (VT). Literature linking mental health nursing and VT is sparse. VT is an enduring trauma that affects those who engage empathically across time and with different patients. Mental health nurses form ongoing therapeutic relationships with patients to foster healing. This empathic engagement leaves nurses vulnerable to VT. This project is qualitatively designed using narrative enquiry with in-depth, semistructured interviews of mental health nurses. Data gathered was thematically analysed and four main themes identified: the impact of VT; self-knowledge/self-awareness; self-care; and burnout. Participants in this study felt unprepared for the negative impact of mental health nursing and learned of VT 'on the job'. My recommendations include education on identifying VT, and self-care, including clinical supervision, to ameliorate the effects of VT. Further research is needed to explore the links between VT and mental health nursing.</p>

Infodemic vs. Pandemic Factors Associated to Public Anxiety in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Introduction: Every outbreak of an epidemic or pandemic disease is accompanied by the tsunami of information, which is also known as the infodemic. Infodemic makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it, and causes social panic about health, widens the gaps between races and regions, and even brings the social chaos all over the world. While most researchers and related parties made efforts to control the inaccurate information spreading online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the infodemic influence caused by the overload of accurate information were almost or completely ignored, and this will hinder the control of infodemic in future public health crises. This study aims to explore the infodemic vs. pandemic influence on people's psychological anxiety across different media sources in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in China.Methods: A cross-sectional study using online survey method was conducted by a data-collection service provider in April 2020. A total of 1,117 valid samples were finally collected from 5,203 randomly invited members via webpages and WeChat. The sample distribution covered the 30 provincial administrative divisions of mainland China.Results: Hierarchical regression analysis for the potential pandemic sources and infodemic sources of psychological anxiety showed that the infodemic factors of attention to the coronavirus information (β = 0.154, p &lt; 0.001) and commercial media exposure (β = 0.147, p &lt; 0.001) is positively related to the level of anxiety. Statistics indicated that influence of the infodemic factors is over and above that of the pandemic factors (ΔR2 = 0.054, F = 14.199, and p &lt; 0.001). Mediation analysis showed that information overload (B = 0.155, Boot SE = 0.022, and 95% Boot CI [0.112, 0.198]) mediates the link between attention to coronavirus information and anxiety; both information overload (B = 0.035, Boot SE = 0.014, and 95% Boot CI [0.009, 0.062]) and media vicarious traumatization (B = 0.106, Boot SE = 0.017, and 95% Boot CI [0.072, 0.140]) mediate the link between commercial media exposure and anxiety.Conclusion: This study suggested that the influence of infodemic with mixed accurate and inaccurate information on public anxiety does exist, which could possibly go beyond that of the pandemic. Information overload and vicarious traumatization explain how infodemic may be associated to public anxiety. Finally, commercial media could be a major source of infodemic in the Chinese media context. Implications for the related parties were discussed.

Possible Vicarious Traumatization Among Psychiatric Inpatients During the Remission Phase of the COVID-19: A Single-Center Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Far from being a clinical disease, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a threatening social event worldwide exerting long-term impacts on human beings.Objective: This study was designed to determine if and to what extent psychiatric inpatients during the remission phase of the pandemic suffered from vicarious traumatization.Method: Totally 266 eligible participants from psychiatric and psychological wards in a hospital were recruited during October 26th, 2020 to February 4th, 2021 to finish a self-made online questionnaire consisting of Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index-Revised (PSQI-R), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Beck Suicide Ideation Scale (SSI), 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12). Meanwhile, some socio-demographics and information related to the pandemic were also recorded.Results: The detection rate of vicarious traumatic symptoms (VTS) was 80.83%, including 40.98% for mild ones, 25.56% for moderate ones, and 14.29% for severe ones, among whom 98.14% possessed all three phenotypes. 27.07% of the sample were considered possible vicarious traumatization (pVT). Having acquaintances infected with or died from COVID-19, worries on re-outbreak of COVID-19, a higher score of OCI-R or lower score of SF-12, and long latency of VTS were independent risk factors of pVT.Conclusion: Our study showed that COVID-19 could have profound mental influences on psychiatric inpatients. It is high time we did some screening in the wards to seek for patients at risk.

Vulnerability and Resilience in Sensitive Research: The Case of the Quantitative Researcher

The emotional experiences of quantitative researchers, particularly while conducting sensitive research, are largely neglected. This article aims to advance the awareness of possible emotional strains for quantitative researchers engaged in sensitive research. It qualitatively assesses the ethical and emotional experiences of quantitative researchers conducting a study on aging of bereaved parents and people with a physical disability. Based on the detailed minutes of 66 weekly research meetings held during 2015–2017, a thematic analysis of the researchers’ experiences was performed. Our analysis identified two main themes: vulnerability and resilience. We delineate these themes, along with their subthemes and affinity to vicarious traumatization, moral stress, and vicarious posttraumatic growth. The current study is among the first to introduce the emotional and ethical experiences of the quantitative researcher. Tentative recommendations for the advancement of the researcher’s safety and well-being by training, institutional support, self-care skills, and policy development are provided.

Vicarious traumatization in healthcare providers in response to COVID-19 pandemic in Kelantan, Malaysia

Background In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline healthcare providers who are engaged in the direct diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients face a high risk of infection yet receive inadequate protection from contamination and minimal support to cope with overwork, frustration, and exhaustion. These problems have created significant psychological and mental health concerns for frontline healthcare providers. This study aimed to compare the levels of vicarious traumatization between frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology All the subjects who met the inclusion criteria were recruited for this comparative cross-sectional study, which was conducted from May to July 2020 in two hospitals in Kelantan, Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire, namely, the Malay-version Vicarious Traumatization Questionnaire and the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey were utilized. A descriptive analysis, independent t-test, and analysis of covariance were performed using SPSS Statistics version 26. Results A total of 160 frontline and 146 non-frontline healthcare providers were recruited. Vicarious traumatization was significantly higher among the non-frontline healthcare providers (estimated marginal mean [95% CI]: 79.7 [75.12, 84.30]) compared to the frontline healthcare providers (estimated marginal mean [95% CI]: 74.3 [68.26, 80.37]) after adjusting for sex, duration of employment, and social support. Conclusion The level of vicarious traumatization was higher among non-frontline compared to frontline healthcare providers. However, the level of severity may differ from person to person, depending on how they handle their physical, psychological, and mental health. Hence, support from various resources, such as colleagues, family, the general public, and the government, may play an essential role in the mental health of healthcare providers.