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Psychiatric aspects of trauma care: survey of nurses and doctors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David A Alexander*
Affiliation:
Medical School, Foresterhill, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD
Susan F Atcheson
Affiliation:
Medical School, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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This study reports on how 139 nursing and 42 medical staff in trauma units viewed psychiatric aspects of trauma, their training and the impact of their work upon them. Insufficient attention was paid in their units to the psychiatric aspects of trauma. There were important gaps in staff knowledge relating to the diagnosis and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, and to the use of night sedation. Nearly all staff favoured providing information regarding post-traumatic psychiatric reactions for relatives, but nearly half had reservations about giving such information to patients. Job satisfaction was reported by most, but their emotional and training needs were generally not met.

Type
Original papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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