Using proactive coping to manage the stress of trauma patient care.

Some emergency nurses are resilient following trauma patient care, while others report severe traumatic stress. The purpose of this study was to determine proactive coping behaviors used by emergency nurses to prevent traumatic stress. A cross-sectional research design was used with a national sample of emergency nurses. Participants completed a 5-component Web-based survey. Data analyses included 1-tailed partial correlations. The correlation of proactive coping score to traumatic stress was significant. Proactive coping strategies that focus on the planning and preparation to provide care for traumatically injured patients may be effective at preventing traumatic stress.