First responders who participate in disaster are at risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because of nurses’ unique role as professional and volunteer responders, there is a need to know more about risks of PTSD in this group.
Using a cross-sectional correlational design, associations between disaster exposure, problem focused coping (PFC), emotion-focused coping (EFC) and PTSD symptoms (Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) scale) were explored. A random sample (n= 995) was drawn from a list of nurses from the New Orleans region. Each nurse was mailed an invitation to participate in an online survey. Three post-card reminders were sent.
The sample was divided into nurses who participated in disaster activities (n=76) and those who did not (n=32). Prevalence of PTSD in the PIDA nurses was 13.2%. Almost half the PIDA nurses (48.7%) reported symptoms of PTSD, and increased use of substances to cope (31.5%). Only 9.2% sought psychological care post-event. Regression analyses, controlling for history of trauma, marital status, and gender found EFC accounted for a significant amount of the variance of symptoms of PTSD (R2 = 0.32, F (1, 67) = 25.09, p < 0.001) (B=0.4, SE=0.01, p
Prevalence of PTSD among PIDA nurses was lower than other groups of professional responders (17.4% in firefighters), but greater than the general public (6.8%). Presence of PTSD in PIDA nurses five years after Hurricane Katrina is associated with the increased use of EFC and substances.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GEORGIA/oai:digitalarchive.gsu.edu:nursing_diss-1024 |
| Date | 14 December 2011 |
| Creators | Park, Wendy |
| Publisher | Digital Archive @ GSU |
| Source Sets | Georgia State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Nursing Dissertations |
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