Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating an Adapted Stress First Aid and Psychological First Aid Model in a Hospital...

Healthcare workers are exposed to many stressors including long hours, intense physical and emotional labor, and consistent exposure to suffering and death. Together these stressors can culminate into more chronic and severe stress responses when not appropriately addressed. To help mitigate the impact of these stressors, peer-administered post-event psychosocial support programs have been developed, such as Psychological First Aid and Stress First Aid. Unfortunately, few resources exist to help those interested in designing, implementing, and evaluating such a program within their organization. This manuscript provides an in-depth review of the development and implementation of an adapted peer-administered post-event psychosocial support training program created in a Mid-Atlantic Level 1 Trauma Hospital to meet the organization's specific needs. The adapted program blends elements of Psychological First Aid and Stress First Aid and was found to be an effective means to improve healthcare workers' ability to recognize and respond to stress injuries among colleagues. Findings indicate that support programs, such as Psychological First Aid and Stress First Aid, can be adapted to meet specific needs of the institution while still being highly effective in training healthcare workers.