INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS AND CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS AMONG MATERNAL-INFANT NURSES.
Contributors: University of Central Florida.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 178
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Industrial.; Education, Curriculum and Instruction.
Description: The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the incidence and prevalence of critical incidents and critical incident stress among maternal-infant nurses and to determine the coping responses of these nurses after experiencing such events. Data were collected at two points in time from a non-probability sample of 52 subjects drawn from a pool of 363 maternal-infant nurses in a metropolitan service area. Hospitals of all sizes and levels of perinatal centers were included in the sample population. The Impact of Event Scale (IES) developed by Horowitz, Wilner and Alvarez (1979) and the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) (1989 version) Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) section, modified for self-administration, were used to collect data. Interviews were conducted with nine self-selected subjects in order to obtain information about the critical incidents they experienced, the resultant stress symptomatology and coping techniques employed. Data obtained by the IES, the DIS and the demographics were analyzed by appropriate measures of central tendency and variation. The results indicated that forty-one nurses had experienced at least one critical incident. The incidents were classified into eleven event categories. The two most common event categories were those involving poor outcome or fetal death and an unexpected emergency or code. PTSD symptomatology was present among maternal-infant nurses as a result of such critical incidents. Younger, less experienced nurses, nurses working in Level I perinatal centers, and nurses working in the neonatal intensive care and labor and delivery areas are at higher risk for critical incident stress. There was a strong desire to talk with other co-workers about critical incidents as a means of coping with critical incident stress.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: B, page: 6131.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA, 1993.

School code: 0705.