Secondary Traumatic Stress: Understanding the Impact of Trauma Work on Professionals

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Understanding Secondary Traumatic Stress

Take this insightful quiz to explore the impact of Secondary Traumatic Stress on professionals working with trauma-affected individuals. Through a series of carefully crafted questions, you will assess your knowledge and understand the signs, symptoms, and effects of this crucial issue.

By participating in this quiz, you will:

Enhance your understanding of Secondary Traumatic Stress
Learn about its implications for health professionals
Discover strategies to mitigate its effects

10 Questions2 MinutesCreated by HelpingHeart712

Secondary Traumatic Stress is best defined as

A. An individual’s response to a direct traumatic event happening to them

B. Working long hours and feeling burned out as a result

C. Emotional duress that results from hearing the firsthand traumatic experiences of another

D. None of the above

Potential causes of Secondary Traumatic Stress include

A. Hearing a child talk about their traumatic experience

B. Reading details of a traumatic experience in a child’s file

C. Seeing children suffer as a result of their traumatic experiences

D. All of the above

Which of these is not an example of a symptom of Secondary Traumatic Stress?

A. Feeling focused at work

B. Difficulty sleeping

C. Feeling depressed

D. Missing work

Individuals working with individuals who have experienced trauma might experience moral distress. Which of the following is an example of moral distress?

A. A feeling of emotional exhaustion from working long hours

B. Feeling like policies and procedures require you to do something you do not think is the right thing to do

C. Feeling like your work is important and makes a meaningful contribution to clients

D. Incidents where a traumatized child physically threatens your safety

Secondary Traumatic Stress can impact the workforce in which of these ways?

A. Staff may call in sick often

B. High rates of staff turnover or attrition

C. Compromised care for children

D. All of the above are true

As an individual, a strategy you can use to address Secondary Traumatic Stress is

A. Learn more about STS and look for symptoms

B. Add wellness activities to your routine

C. Work harder to connect with the children you serve

D. Answers A and B

Which of these is not a way organizations can reduce the risk of Secondary Traumatic Stress?

A. Rely solely on staff to monitor themselves for STS

B. Use assessments confidentially to look for signs of STS in staff

C. Identify ways to promote nutrition for staff

D. Create a flexible work schedule that includes shifts that are lower in stress

E. Assign multiple roles( translator, cultural broker, interpreter) and higher volume of cases/ families/ patients to providers who bi-lingual or multilingual

Which of these practices can reduce the risk of experiencing Secondary Traumatic Stress?

A. Reflecting on the positive feelings you have about the work you do (Compassion Satisfaction)

B. Avoiding discussions about STS to avoid burdening your colleagues

C. Evaluating a staff’s STS during their performance review

D. Hiring young staff who are not yet fatigued by the work

Reflective Supervision or individual Reflective Practice helps us process the types of events that might make us feel unsafe. Which of these strategies is an example of reflective practice?

A. Vent with a colleague after an incident

B. After an incident, immediately begin processing regardless of the location

C. Take up a trusted mentor, colleague, or supervisor’s offer for a consistent and safe meeting time to explore your feelings and the impact of the work

D. Look for your own examples of workplace stressors to help them see their experience isn’t that bad

As an organization, which of these strategies can you use to support your workforce?

A. Highlight achievements when they happen

B. Emphasize hope for children to recover from trauma

C. Encourage teams to build strong peer relationships

D. All of the above

Secondary Traumatic Stress: Understanding the Impact of Trauma Work on Professionals

Understanding Secondary Traumatic Stress

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