Augment Nursing School and Workplace Experience by Promoting Psychological Safety, Compassion Satisfaction and Joy in Work
Authors: Stephany Kathleen 
Published: May 2024

Chapter Six presents an overview of how trauma-informed educational
processes ensure that student nurses feel safe and supported in an ideal learning
environment. Strategies that promote psychological safety are recommended followed
by measures to foster compassion satisfaction and joy in work. Psychological safety
consists of a civil and respectful place for learning to occur. Compassion satisfaction is
derived from the gratification experienced by caregivers when caring for others, and
joy in work consists of positive components in the work environment. Nursing students
are a risk group for trauma, and they identify the following situations as sources of
trauma, individual-related interpersonal experiences; those related to their role as
students; trauma related to institutional and organizational exposure; and stressors
associated with the community. The Four Core Assumptions of Trauma-informed Care
are used as a guide to implementing psychological safety in nursing school and include
specific measures for the classroom, simulation, and clinical settings. Those directly
related to high-fidelity simulation include actions to make students feel safe before,
during, and after each session. The positive feelings and six core assumptions
associated with compassion satisfaction, and the role that self-compassion and worklife balance play are featured. Key aspects of the work environment that have the
greatest impact on the well-being of nurses working in critical care consist of adequate
staffing, meaningful recognition, and effective decision-making. Student nurses with a
history of trauma can experience compassion satisfaction if they are able to identify
with some of the positive aspects associated with being a trauma survivor. If new
nurses are adequately supported by their employers they experience less stress, and
increased fulfillment in their jobs. There are valuable justifications for creating joy in
work. A focus on joy enhances the work experience, increases employee engagement,
benefits the organization, and improves patient outcomes. Making the workplace happy
is a shared responsibility, where everyone is expected to do their best work.
Meaningful connection to other people is important where teamwork, cooperation, and
a sense of camaraderie are ideal. Two specific forms of governance that promote joy in
work are participatory and servant leadership. Psychological personal protective
equipment (PPE) consists of individual and system-wide measures that support and
safeguard the mental health of employees. Two Narrative Case Studies were presented.
In the first one, a student nurse became re-traumatized when listening to a detailed
story of someone’s traumatic experience. The second Narrative Case Study revealed
how a new nurse considered leaving his high-acuity job because of a lack of
appreciation. The following five learning activities were proposed, exploring assumptions about constructive feedback; ways to professionally express appreciation;
understanding how you handle mistakes; creating a self-inventory to assess work-life
balance; and incorporating the ten characteristics of servant leadership into practice. At
the end of the Chapter, specific strategies were recommended to build college students’
self-confidence.