Prevalent posttraumatic stress disorder among emergency department personnel: rapid systematic review

Abstract

Abstract This research review synthesized the evidence on the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder among emergency department personnel in Canada and the USA. No previous such synthesis, specific to this crucial aspect of North American health care had previously been published. Broad keyword searches of interdisciplinary research databases, both peer-reviewed and grey, retrieved 10 surveys published between 1996 and 2019. Their outcomes were synthesized with sample-weighted, pooled analyses. The most significant review finding was that one of every five such emergency care personnel met posttraumatic stress disorder diagnostic criteria; 18.6% (95% confidence interval 16.9, 20.4). However, this synthesis of generally small, nonprobability surveys with high nonparticipation rates, could only suggest that the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder is perhaps nearly two-fold greater among emergency department nurses (25.8%) than physicians (15.6%). Additionally, it seems that gender (being a woman) may play an important role in the relatively greater risk of nurses. Better controlled, more powerful probability surveys that examine the profession by gender interaction, are needed to affirm (or refute) these synthetic findings. Qualitative inquiries that tap into the key informing experiences of diverse emergency department personnel are also needed to best plan and implement their preventive and therapeutic care.