Secondary traumatic stress and resilience among healthcare professionals: The role of burnout and moral injury
Bianca Mihaela Melinte, Maria Nicoleta Turliuc
Several researchers have found a negative association between resilience and secondary traumatic stress (STS). However, there are situations in which some medical professionals, following exposure to traumatic events suffered by their patients, experience STS symptoms, but still maintain or reach a significant level of resilience. This could indicate that different factors may be involved in the relationship between STS and resilience. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between STS and resilience in healthcare professionals and to identify possible mediators of this relationship: burnout and moral injury. The study was conducted on a sample of 174 healthcare professionals working in hospitals and clinics. The results showed the presence of a significant negative relationship between STS and resilience in healthcare professionals. Also, both burnout and moral injury partially mediated the relationship between STS and resilience. These results may offer some explanation as to why some healthcare professionals manage to remain resilient even after constant exposure to traumatic events, while others have difficulties recovering from them. Therefore, organizations should provide education and training to medical professionals, both on the effects that exposure to trauma experienced by their patients can have on them, as well as conducting programs to reduce burnout and support groups to help them through difficult situations that may cause moral injury.
Secondary traumatic stress, Resilience, Healthcare professionals, Burnout, Moral injury
Bianca Mihaela Melinte – Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania
Maria Nicoleta Turliuc – Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania, email: turliuc@uaic.ro
